This isn’t a health news story.
But it could have been.
TVSpy.com estimates that 27 local TV stations across the country all used the same script for filler material. They reported:
Conan O’Brien poked fun at content-sharing in local news this week, showing a clip on his show of several anchors repeating the same phrase — “push the envelope” — while reporting on the late night host’s plans to officiate a same-sex wedding on his show.
The original source of the copy was CBS Newspath, according to staffers at two stations featured in the clip. Although “Conan” only showed 18 stations, a search of TVEyes.com reveals that 27 stations reported the story using identical wording.
In each case, the TV station has filled news time at no expense, grabbing a feed from CBS without having to pay a reporter to hit the streets and do some enterprise reporting on some important local issue.
Watch and weep.
We’ve written many times about journalism-via-news-release. Here’s an example that didn’t involve TV news but print journalism.
Opinions on other issues in news, journals, PR, advertising, marketing
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.
https://t.co/qO2a27FiSe
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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