In response to public outcry over paid programming messages
that air sans sponsorship disclosures, the FCC has decided to rail against payola
(click here to read the FCC’s payola factsheet). As with indecency complaints,
the feds are relying upon citizens to report suspected violators.
This
comes on the heels of a recent investigation of video news releases (VNRs),
which are pre-packaged, pre-produced “news” stories (that sometimes employ
actors as reporters) supplied to stations by private companies, organizations,
or sectors of the government. It was discovered that many stations were airing
these announcements unedited and without disclosing their source(s) or sponsors.
Read more about VNRs here (PDF).
Mistrust of the news media is reaching new heights among the American public;
bolstered by the recent Newsweek retraction
and the lack of coverage concerning the Downing Street memo,
this bug has even bitten public broadcasting, as NPR and PBS now face content
investigations intended to weed out instances of bias. Earlier this week, the Supreme court overruled a 2003 FCC decision that would
have allowed large broadcast empires to acquire more TV stations and newspaper
companies to purchase broadcast stations (read the article here).
Of course, all of this uproar over journalistic integrity and media ownership
is diverting the FCC’s precious energy away from their rampage against indecency, and that's fine by us.
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