Here’s more followup to the Center for Media & Democracy’s report on the use of Video News Releases last week.
The LA Daily News picked up the story and reported that one of the culprit TV stations found to use VNRs is in that second biggest TV market in the country – KABC.
They reported: “Last September, Channel 7, the ABC affiliate for Los Angeles, aired a story during the 5 p.m. Tuesday newscast about a blood test to find allergies in kids. It looked like a legit news story, with interviews, graphics, cute kids and a voice-over by a Channel 7 news reporter. It wasn’t, though. The report was a canned video news release, or VNR, produced for and paid by Quest Diagnostics, a company that runs labs around the country that do this very sort of testing. There was no disclosure by the station that the piece was an advertorial.”
KCBS and KTLA in Los Angeles were also found to run VNRs without disclosing it.
In all, the report found 36 VNRs airing on 77 stations all over the country, and every newspaper in those cities should be telling the story, as the LA Daily News did.
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Following a shift in journalism’s business model, a diverse ecosystem of publications, many covering science, has sprung up online. This has made it more difficult to sort out what qualifies as journalism, what doesn’t, and whether the public even cares.
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Researchers and journalists do the public a grave disservice when they spin health study results to make them appear safer or more effective than warranted, says @HealthNewsRevu founder @garyschwitzer https://t.co/QIKsRbP6Ed
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