In defiance of the FCC’s recent decision to lay the
smack-down on Video News Releases (VNRs), fake news has risen from the ashes of
near-defeat, unrelenting. A House panel failed to strike down an amendment that
would prevent government agencies from producing fabricated news segments and
articles using paid journalists.
This decision seems to contradict the FCC
decision on VNRs (which are pre-produced faux-news pieces paid for and provided
to TV stations by companies, organizations, and government agencies), where the
issue raised was a lack of sponsorship disclosure. Some may argue that allowing
government agencies to continue propaganda production is simply answering to
the current marketplace demand for fake news.
Although critics of fake news point
out potential dangers of this particular genre of information, the facts cannot
be ignored: fake news fans are smarter.
When you say "failed to strike down" don't you really mean "succeeded in striking down"?
"Rep. Maurice Hinchey is up in arms over a 34-24 vote in the House Appropriations Committee which doomed an amendment of his which would have prohibited the use of paid journalists or "fake news" pieces by any government agencies."
Posted by: Rice | June 27, 2005 at 01:43 PM