From: dave@ratmandu.esd.sgi.com (dave "who can do? ratmandu!" ratcliffe)
Newsgroups: alt.news-media
Subject: advertising news:  marriage of corporate interests (#1 article of `91)
Keywords: news-commercials for fast food and mass destruction
Date: 9 Apr 92 14:31:38 GMT
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.


Summary: PR firms create "news" for advertisers & give these to the news media.

  We're now witnessing the saturday morning "ad shows" phenomena come full
  circle and begin to saturate network newsrooms 24-hours-a-day/7-days-a-week.

  Seen any good "video news releases" (VNRs) lately?  You probably have but 
  were not aware they are what you were seeing.  These are slick, expensive,
  professionally produced videos, prepared by advertising firms and paid for
  by large corporations.  They get beamed via satellite to tv news editors.
  The news people find them hard to resist since they are free.  It's like 
  the Reverend Sun Myung Moon's "American Freedom Coalition" group that was 
  involved in organizing "support our troops" rallies in ALL fifty states 
  early last year, and printing and distributing--free of charge--30 million
  pieces of political literature during the 1988 presidential election 
  campaign. (see bottom for more on this from the 1/21/92 FRONTLINE special).
  I rate the following piece the NUMBER 1 article of 1991 concerning the
  issue of whose *interests* truly articulate and drive the priorities, 
  goals and values of our society.
                                                              --ratitor

The distinction between what is a commercial and what is not is rapidly fading.  

from a november 1991 issue of the "Anderson Valley Advertiser" weekly newspaper
reprinted with permission of the Anderson Valley Advertiser, copyright (c) 1991
         subscriptions are $30/year (p.o. box 459 booneville, ca 95415)
    ______________________________________________________________________

                       Advertising Invades the Newsroom
                             by Carl Hammarskjold


           For years, the cliche of the local evening news has been,
       "film at eleven."  Generally, the films that accompany TV news
       stories are shot by reporters and camera operators employed by
       networks or their syndicates.  But that is changing rapidly,
       thanks to advances in video technology and cutbacks in the
       newsrooms.  Increasingly, what TV news stations pass off as news
       are actually video news releases:  expensive and professional
       videos prepared by advertising firms and paid for by large
       corporations.  Groups like Medialink beam these video news
       releases, or VNRs, via satellite to television news editors.
       These editors, lured by the polished product available at no
       cost, run these press releases as news, much like the print
       media do with the VNRs, written counterparts.  The result:
       corporate-sponsored ad agencies are subtly changing and
       controlling the news we see on the tube.
           A Medialink poll publicized by Bob Sonenclar in the current
       "Columbia Journalism Review," found that 78% of news directors
       used at least one edited VNR per week, and 15.2% used at least
       one unedited.  Their use is widespread.  For example, 81.2
       million people saw a "news" report on dolphin-safe tuna fishing
       methods on TV last year.  Reporters did not dig up this story.
       It was fed to them by Starkist Seafood Co., who hired Chicago-
       based Edelman Public Relations Worldwide to produce it.  Ad
       executives sailed on fishing boats to promote Starkist's
       product.  News directors, undoubtedly impressed by the artfully
       shot and edited scenes of playful dolphins, fierce seas, and
       rugged yet environmentally sensitive boathands, ate it up.
           The question:  Is dolphin-safe tuna newsworthy without
       easily available PR material about it?  If so, why not assign
       reporters to the story instead of relying on the advertising
       people?  If not, why run it on the news at all?  The answer, of
       course, is money.  Assigning reporters and camera crews to an
       all-day or even all-week fishing expedition is an expense that
       most news stations cannot afford, or at least wish to avoid.
       But StarKist can afford it.  In fact, faced with a nationwide
       boycott of their tuna, StarKist can't afford not to.
           Edelman also produced a VNR for the Nutrasweet Company about
       fat substitutes which was run as "news" and seen by 54.1 million
       people.  No doubt this VNR featured scientists talking about
       health hazards, maybe even an animated segment showing fat cells
       clogging up arteries and killing folks.  Then an interview with
       a Nutrasweet technician reporting objectively on alternatives to
       fatty foods.
           Other examples:  21.8 million people watched Soviets line up
       at the new Moscow McDonald's to enjoy a hamburger.  McDonald's
       Corporation paid Patterson-Parkington First International of
       Toronto to create the news.  Here we have Americans watching a
       Canadian-made film of Russians eating Central American beef.
       First International, indeed.  And 18.6 million people learned
       about the "International Rotten Sneaker Contest" from their
       trusty news anchors.  Odor-Eaters paid Combe, Inc. of White
       Plains, New York to create that news.
           All of these examples are amusing in a disgusting sort of
       way.  But some video news releases are deadly.  For instance,
       61.4 million people saw a VNR on Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.
       35.3 million saw a later VNR depicting human rights abuses
       perpetrated by the Iraqis against the Kuwaitis.  Reporters were
       not involved in these two particular news accounts.  Hill and
       Knowlton of Washington, DC created this news, commissioned by a
       group called Citizens for a Free Kuwait.  This group, rumored to
       be working with five million petrodollars belonging to the Emir
       himself, also hired a PR firm to mass produce "Free Kuwait" T-
       shirts, flags, bumper stickers, and assorted Desert Shield/Storm
       souvenirs.  The group's task was to put a positive spin on the
       Emir's repressive regime so that Americans could feel good about
       killing and dying to restore Kuwait's legitimate dictator.
           Perhaps the only bigger distributor of video news releases
       than Medialink is the Pentagon.  What name other than VNR could
       you call the footage of smart bombs dropping through Iraqi
       chimneys?  The networks salivated over that video clip, and
       hundreds of others like it, supplied by the military, designed
       to put a positive spin on what the United Nations now calls
       "near apocalyptic" allied bombing which has brought Iraq back
       "to a pre-industrial age."
           Those are quotes from a UN task force which visited Iraq
       from March 10 to March 17, as reported in the March 22 "New York
       Times."  It concluded that Iraq could face "epidemic and famine
       if massive life-supporting needs are not rapidly met."  During
       the war, however, the press was handed no famine video news
       releases.  No VNRs of the at least 100,000 massacred, no VNRs of
       the estimated 72,000 left homeless.  No VNRs of the 93% of the
       allied bombs which were not laser-guided, no VNRs of the 70% of
       the 88,500 tons of bombs which missed their targets.  Those are
       Pentagon and United Nations figures, but they were released
       after the war without the aid of an advertising agency or public
       relations firm or compelling video footage.  Hence, they were
       lost or buried in the media.
           That Russians are lining up to eat Big Macs and a US smart
       bomb went down a chimney are facts.  But they are carefully
       selected and packaged facts, designed to further the cause of
       the supplier--McDonald's and the Pentagon.  They are not news,
       they are commercials for fast food and mass destruction.  They
       are also so well made that news directors can't pass them up.
           The distinction between what is a commercial and what is not
       is rapidly fading.  It started to vanish in the glossy magazines
       like "Vogue."  Most of the articles in "Vogue" give advice on
       how a woman can improve her appearance.  Most of the advice
       involves purchasing products.  In between the articles are
       advertisements telling women how to improve their appearance by
       purchasing products.  The articles and the ads feed off one
       another.  Children's shows are good examples, too.  The GI Joe
       daytime cartoon features a team of American heroes.  These
       heroes are available in the form of action figures in toy
       stores.  One week, on the show, a new arch-villain appears.
       That same week, the arch-villain also appears in the toy store.
       Kids buy them as fast as the animators can come up with them.
       The half-hour show is a long commercial for the action figures.
       Of course, the long commercial is broken up three or four times
       by sets of shorter commercials, which pay for the long one.
           The same is true of evening news.  Imagine this:  you are
       watching an NBC affiliate, owned by General Electric, a major US
       weapons manufacturer.  The "news" is the Iraqi invasion of
       Kuwait, paid for and produced by the Emir and a right-wing lobby
       group.  Cut to commercials--The Army Reserve ("Be all that you
       can be"), General Electric light bulbs ("We bring good things to
       light"), and Miller Brewing Company ("It's Miller Time.")
       Imagine you've had a few Millers and the news about Saddam
       Hussein sure makes you want to blow him up.  Not you personally,
       of course, but those brave-looking reservists look like they
       could do it, no problem.  It's all so clear, like a lit General
       Electric light bulb just appeared over your head.  Imagine that
       General Electric gets their news for free, courtesy of the
       Emir's ad people.  That the Emir gets his palace back, courtesy
       of the US military.  That the US military is buying commercial
       time on NBC to support General Electric.  That General Electric
       is producing weapons to support the US military.
           Sort of frightening.  Just be thankful that you don't have to
       imagine it.


    ______________________________________________________________________


    "FRONTLINE" aired "The Resurrection of Reverend Moon" on Jan. 21, 1992.
    the transcript of this show will be forthcoming on sgi.talk.ratical.
    part of the lead-in section included:

       . . . today, Moon presides over financial, political, and media
      empires.  Frontline investigates the extent of his power and the
      ultimate sources of his funding."


    a segment--particularly relevant to the above article--follows:

      Douglass Weed was a Special Assistant to President Bush, responsible
      for liason with conservative groups:

           "I'd say right now there are probably two groups among 
         conservative organizations that really have an infrastructure, 
         that have grassroots clout:  `Concerned Women of America' 
         would, and `American Freedom Coalition' would."

      During the 1988 election the AFC printed and distributed 30 million
      pieces of political literature including these glossy voter 
      scorecards ("Voters 88 Guide, The policies behind the personalities").

           "I think the scorecards and some of the independent 
         literature published had an enormous effect.  In fact, we had
         huge notebooks filled with published materials from a wide 
         variety of organizations.  The best was probably AFC's.  Their's 
         was by far the slickest and the finest produced material.  And 
         when that doesn't cost you anything, and is not charged against 
         the campaign, and is widely distributed to mailing lists across
         the country, that has a very important impact."

      The AFC's activities have prompted renewed questions about Sun Myung
      Moon's involvment in American politics.


    ______________________________________________________________________


    Where does the influence of companies driven by the bottom-line end when
    we examine what is presented as factual and objective "news" to the 
    citizens of this democracy we all are told we live and participate in?


--
                                             daveus rattus   

                                   yer friendly neighborhood ratman

                              KOYAANISQATSI

   ko.yan.nis.qatsi (from the Hopi Language)  n.  1. crazy life.  2. life
       in turmoil.  3. life out of balance.  4. life disintegrating.  
         5. a state of life that calls for another way of living.
Xref: sparky alt.news-media:199 alt.activism:7504