Bush 'Planted Fake News Stories on American TV'

Independant

Federal authorities are actively investigating dozens of American television stations for broadcasting items produced by the Bush administration and major corporations, and passing them off as normal news. Some of the fake news segments talked up success in the war in Iraq, or promoted the companies' products.

The report, by the non-profit group Centre for Media and Democracy, found that over a 10-month period at least 77 television stations were making use of the faux news broadcasts, known as Video News Releases (VNRs). Not one told viewers who had produced the items

"We know we only had partial access to these VNRs and yet we found 77 stations using them," said Diana Farsetta, one of the group's researchers. "I would say it's pretty extraordinary. The picture we found was much worse than we expected going into the investigation in terms of just how widely these get played and how frequently these pre-packaged segments are put on the air."

Ms Farsetta said the public relations companies commissioned to produce these segments by corporations had become increasingly sophisticated in their techniques in order to get the VNRs broadcast. "They have got very good at mimicking what a real, independently produced television report would look like," she said.

Read the Full Report "Fake TV News: Widespread and Undisclosed" in .pdf

So you know how the Immense Neo-Con Propaganda machine works - pretty much "Almost" Undetectable and pretty much Widespread.

Fake News Everywhere!

And you can not even tell the Difference from a Fake news and an Independant report about an event - and how a report should look like.

And it is just getting worse - as we could see with the latest PR-O trick with Iran; "Iranian Law May Require Non-Muslims to Wear Badges".

So you can ask yourself - how many news reports on American news stations are actually a reflecton of the real event that happened?

It just Corporate Conglomerates OWNING everything!

Related ATS thread:
US and UK neck and neck in Fake News Olympics
Muslim Scholars Were Paid to Aid U.S. Propaganda
The media are minimising US and British war crimes in Iraq

Related News:
The propaganda we pass off as news around the world
FCC's Martin Orders Probe of TV Stations That Air Ads as News
U.S. Urged to Stop Paying Iraqi Reporters
Pentagon launches Guantanamo PR campaign

I don't think that any of this could come to a surprise to me anymore. I know we have heard about it before, but now it is validated. I am not so sure that it exactly started with this administration though, and I would like to know how long this has been really going on. Our poor country. I guess this is when we call ourselves proles, right?

I especially now pay more attention to U.S. media reports that talk about countries such as China or Iran, and they use terms such as "State-owned Television." Sounds like they were learning a little much from their observations and now are deciding to use it here. Chalk another one up for the polce state's side.

Thanks for getting the info out there Souljah!

Originally posted by niteboy82
I don't think that any of this could come to a surprise to me anymore.

That's the saddest part about this. I read this story and said, "Well, duh."

And perhaps it didn't start with this administration and perhaps politicians have always been liars and perhaps government has always been corrupt but today, the corruption has incresed exponentially in this country until it's not even on the same scale as previously.

Faux News, Indeed...

Expected Response.

I was kind of hoping that some Bush&Co appologizers would arrive and tell me their side of this story.

I guess not in this thread!

You see, this is what conditioning does to a person.

Yeah, read this and said "So? What else is knew?".

A few years back, well pre 9/11 it was unthinkable that any major news or media would feed "false" stories or corporate propaganda, and get these kind of reactions if we ever found out.

On the contrary, I would think that protests would hit the streets, and a major scandal would have been made out of it.

And now? Our brains overloaded with all post-9/11 propaganda we do not even flinch at this infomation. What would it take to rally people from the couches into the street these days? What road will lead to impeachment and a halt to this madness? I really do not know. It seems anything goes these days. At least Patriot Act II met with some degree of resistance... Coming soon to your neighbourhood: Patriot Act II - The Revenge Of The Neo-Cons(tm) Not funny.

If you were ever in doubt: The Proof: Mass Conditioning Works. The reactions by the people (us?) to this news is all the evidence anyone should ever wish for.

Originally posted by HardToGet
You see, this is what conditioning does to a person.

Yeah, read this and said "So? What else is knew?".

On the contrary, I would think that protests would hit the streets, and a major scandal would have been made out of it.

I would say to not give up hope, but that would be a silly thing to say these days. I hope people realize where we're going with this. I think one of the worst parts about anything is that a lot of people think they are alone when discussing their opposition to stories like this because you wonder if ostracism is what follows. My how things seem to have changed only in my 23 years of life.

War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength

I suspected something like this was going on. Too many inconsistencies and too much agenda promotion.

What I don't understand about the current administration is what they think they're trying to accomplish by resorting to these obvious propagandist techniques...

Are they catering to a specific, real or imagined section of the populace?

OR

Are they trying to confuse and intimidate the mass majority?

It's one of the worst campaigns I've ever lived through, and even though several people have made references between the current administration and the goings on of the early Nazi party - I tend to find such a comparison laughable.

It's time for this administration to step down. I'm fed up with these children playing around with the machine.

You´re right it is time to stop it, but how?

How DO you stop a Police State in the making? I´m sure some of our grandparents asked the same question in Germany around 1930...

They did not succeed and most of the dissidents disappeared quietly.

If have the feeling that if something is not done to change power in the White House by impeachment or new elections or whatever, more dissidents will start to disappear. Opposition silenced and neatly disposed of as enemies of the state.

Continuing on this path, freedom will truly vanish.

In the end, so will this board.

EDIT: There are similarities to Nazi Germany with regards to propaganda B.T.W. Clear as day.

[edit on 29-5-2006 by HardToGet]

This rips another page from the Communism books- Same techniques :shk:

What is happening is a carbon copy of any other dictatorship you might think of.

The same modus operendei

I never trust the news or everything on t.v. or what people say that is just blah blah blah

I just trust the real world and what I see and know.

EDIT: There are similarities to Nazi Germany with regards to propaganda B.T.W. Clear as day.

I totally agree with you - what I meant by being so laughable is that the techniques are so obvious.

In other words, not very original on the part of our boys on the hill.

*edited for context

[edit on 29-5-2006 by GENERAL EYES]

There is definately a polarization that feels close to coming to a head.

If there is one thing that the liberals AND the conservatives both seem to trumpet is how much the mainstream news sucks(although for completely different reasons)

And some think that Bush is a divider

But on a serious note: This is just one piece in the great puzzle of name that ethical breech.

The real question is how far in the hole are we the people going to let this government(not only THIS administration) dig us into. Hopefully we can climb back out before they start throwing the dirt on us

There is one helluvalot we can do! Wait... no there ain't.
Most of those things will land you in prison (or worse) now-a-days.
I am horrified to say this, but, armed rebellion seems to be the next
logical step.
Don't get me wrong - I am IN NO WAY advocating armed rebellion, but,
history has a funny way of repeating herself to those who don't buy her a
drink on the first pass.
I honestly don't know what to do - my first inclination is to shoot first, but
time and time again, this proves to be a fruitless exercise...so, what do we do?

Voting is pretty much a fraud. No matter what the majority of the populace
wants, it will be negated by puppets of big business...
So what do we do?
Really!!! I'm asking here...
Is it armed rebellion or just another pack of lies from some other douch-bag
puppet that buys the CEO position? and continues to roger us blind.

Originally posted by triptrippington
There is one helluvalot we can do! Wait... no there ain't.
Most of those things will land you in prison (or worse) now-a-days.
I am horrified to say this, but, armed rebellion seems to be the next
logical step.
Don't get me wrong - I am IN NO WAY advocating armed rebellion, but,
history has a funny way of repeating herself to those who don't buy her a
drink on the first pass.
I honestly don't know what to do - my first inclination is to shoot first, but
time and time again, this proves to be a fruitless exercise...so, what do we do?

Voting is pretty much a fraud. No matter what the majority of the populace
wants, it will be negated by puppets of big business...
So what do we do?
Really!!! I'm asking here...
Is it armed rebellion or just another pack of lies from some other douch-bag
puppet that buys the CEO position? and continues to roger us blind.

you know I feel the same way soooo often....where the hell is gandhi when you need him..or Jesus for that matter.... but seriously there ARE only two ways a revolution can be pulled off. 1.) physical revolution(which IS NOT the option that I suggest, nor is it one that I personally subscribe to.) And, 2.) Passive non aggression(aka Gandhi and Martin Luther King)

Fortunately, we now have the internet, providing us with the ability to tell the truth or show the truth in a matter of seconds all over the world.

The great part about OPEN SOURCE NEWS is that people from all walks of life can contribute, comment, question the facts and add to or debunk stories.
This freedom of communication also gives us the ability to fight ignorance and deception.

We can also e-mail en-mass to the media questioning their coverage of certain events.

As we have seen recently, there is great power in public pressure.

Now if only we could solve the problems of election reform so that more people take an interest
in their government than they do watching American Idol.
















[edit on 29-5-2006 by FallenFromTheTree]

Tone and FFTT,

Thanks...I know that sounded mellodramatic as all get-out, but I think it's the way a whole lot of us feel. Where is OUR VOICE?
You're right Tone...we do need a Gandhi - now more than ever, and it's too easy to look at the horizon and hope one will come.
We need to get up and stand up like brother Bob said, but we need to be united on this, and THAT is what kinda freaks me out - can so many voices be unified? Or is everyone gonna worry about their own s@#$?
Can we do it?
I'm worried

As always, those in power understand the concept of divide and conquer better than we do.

We see this everywhere with people saying

Those Christians or Those Muslims, Those Jews, those liberals those neo-cons or any catagory you select stereotyping one faction against another.

This is why we can not focus long enough to see who the real enemy is.

THOSE CORRUPT POLITICIANS! THOSE GREEDY CORPORATE TYCOONS! and THOSE WHO PROFIT
IN THE NAME OF GOD.

Those people who lie to us, steal from us, deceive us and live very comfortably while We The People, the ones who employ them, can barely make ends meet.

We allow these clever criminals to side track us with issues that should always be a matter of personal choice.

That is what freedom is all about. Personal choice, freedom to choose for yourself, not the freedom to force your beliefs on others.

Gotta love slow news days. This story is over 1 year old. It was BS then and it is BS now.

www.truthout.org...

Under Bush, a New Age of Prepackaged Television News

By David Barstow and Robin Stein

Sunday 13 March 2005

That just means they've been doing it for over a year. This story is from today.

And what indication do you have exactly that is it BS?

[edit on 29-5-2006 by Benevolent Heretic]

Originally posted by Carseller4
This story is over 1 year old.
www.truthout.org...

Thanks for providing more sources about how the Bush admin is manipulating the news networks.