With a subject like that, I could be talking about anything from Ivory
Soap's before-our-time claim of 99.44% "purity" to...hell, there are so
many examples to choose from.
But in this case, I'm talking about politics.
'An examination of government-produced news reports offers a look inside a
world where the traditional lines between public relations and journalism
have become tangled, where local anchors introduce prepackaged segments
with "suggested" lead-ins written by public relations experts. It is a
world where government-produced reports disappear into a maze of satellite
transmissions, Web portals, syndicated news programs and network feeds,
only to emerge cleansed on the other side as "independent" journalism.'
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50914FC3E580C708DDDAA0894DD404482
The article also points out that this technique has been used in public
relations & marketing for years, and it's not entirely new to the
government either.
'Federal agencies have been commissioning video news
releases since at least the first Clinton administration. An increasing
number of state agencies are producing television news reports, too;
the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department alone has produced some 500
video news releases since 1993.
Under the Bush administration, federal agencies appear to be producing
more releases, and on a broader array of topics.
A definitive accounting is nearly impossible. There is no comprehensive
archive of local television news reports, as there is in print journalism,
so there is no easy way to determine what has been broadcast, and when
and where.'
See also:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120885/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074958/
