The Bush administration has been predictably obstinate when it comes to producing and distributing taxpayer-financed propaganda in the form of fake-news segments. Officials have been quite upfront about their approach: they’ve been doing it, they’ll keep doing it, and they’re not terribly concerned about independent analyses from the GAO over whether the practice is legal or illegal.
But just because the administration wants to keep sending broadcasters fake news doesn’t mean broadcasters have to play along.
Television broadcasters must disclose to viewers the origin of video news releases produced by the government or corporations when the material runs on the public airwaves, the Federal Communications Commission said yesterday.
The FCC’s ruling comes as video news releases produced by the Bush administration and aired as part of local television news reports have come under attack from critics who call them unlabeled Republican propaganda.
Some members of Congress say greater disclosure is needed. Sens. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) plan to introduce an amendment to a junk fax bill today that would require government agencies — such as the Department of Health and Human Services, whose video news release on Medicare and Medicaid was deemed propaganda by the Government Accountability Office last year — to tell viewers that a clip was produced and paid for by the U.S. government.
“The bottom line is, the government’s role in these news stories needs to be disclosed,” said Lautenberg, a member of the Commerce Committee, which will consider the amendment.
Yesterday, the FCC unanimously clarified rules applying to broadcasters, saying they must disclose to the viewer the origins of video news releases, though the agency does not specify what form the disclosure must take.
Requiring broadcasters to make full disclosure is important in light of the way in which the administration sometimes packages these segments.
In some instances, for example, the Bush gang creates the propaganda without ever acknowledging the government’s role. According to what the FCC said yesterday, that’s no longer acceptable. But just as importantly, the administration also sometimes creates these “video news releases” with a fake journalist identifying himself at the end of the piece, including his or her role in the administration. But there’s a catch: the segment is designed so that broadcasters can (and should) leave out the government disclosure.
In other words, there could be a segment which concludes, “In Miami, I’m Joe Schmoe reporting … (ridiculously long pause) … for the Department of Health and Human Services.” Broadcasters want to air the segment as actual news, so they conveniently stop the tape after the word “reporting” — which is exactly how the administration intended it to be aired, otherwise they wouldn’t have included the long pause.
The FCC’s unanimous “clarification,” therefore, can make a big difference in preventing the public deception we’ve seen repeatedly in recent years and the Lautenberg-Kerry amendment would help guarantee that government disclosure is not optional.
Some may look at this FCC approach as an indirect way of stopping the administration’s propaganda techniques. That’s true. In fact, under this approach, the onus is largely on broadcasters, instead of the administration itself.
But in this case, that’s alright. Ideally, the burden would be on the administration to stop using our money to create fake news, but with limited recourse options, this is the next best thing and may have the intended benefit anyway. After all, the administration won’t produce fake news if the public knows it’s fake news.