Has anyone read about this? If not, you simply must somehow get to the New York Times and read this article. It's not like it hasn't been happening before, but it just positively sickens me that the Bush administration so actively uses it. Yet another reason why the "red states" should long ago have been separated from the civilized (blue) states.
The New York Times > Washington > Under Bush, a New Age of Prepackaged TV News
Quote:
Under the Bush administration, the federal government has aggressively used a well-established tool of public relations: the prepackaged, ready-to-serve news report that major corporations have long distributed to TV stations to pitch everything from headache remedies to auto insurance. In all, at least 20 federal agencies, including the Defense Department and the Census Bureau, have made and distributed hundreds of television news segments in the past four years, records and interviews show. Many were subsequently broadcast on local stations across the country without any acknowledgement of the government's role in their production.
Comments
I would question how long this has really been going on. Is is really just the Bush administration or more a movement of our American political system increasingly over the past x number of years? Either way, I guess, it's pretty disturbing.
Posted by: ma | March 14, 2005 5:12 PM
This is why I NEVER trust or believe ANYTHING I hear/read/see coming from ANY major media outlet until I either research it myself or find out by several independent (i.e. not getting paid by anyone remotely connected to the media or better yet, not at all) that it is in fact true.
Okay, I may be over-paranoid, but how can anyone possibly call themselves well-informed in modern times if they blindly believe what the few major media sources are PAID to tell them, ESPECIALLY when those sources are being PAID by the government itself?!
Wait--I'm probably preaching to the choir here, aren't I?...
Posted by: jansen | March 15, 2005 7:07 AM
So you're my replacement over in Gyoda?
You probably live in my old apartment.
Now I'll have to read your blog to find out what's been happening in Gyoda since I left.
Posted by: Maktaaq | March 15, 2005 3:48 PM