Critics row over US government's 'fake news' video clips

The Bush administration has produced news look-alike video propaganda clips and successfully persuaded television news stations across the country to air them uncritically and, often, uncut. As many as 20 government departments have produced fake news that stations relayed as though they had produced the segments themselves according to the standard rules of journalism, the New York Times reported.

US media critics have always liked to complain about a proliferation of fake news peddling the official line on any given issue. Now, increasingly, their complaints are being vindicated by the behaviour of government officials themselves. In California, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is at the centre of a growing controversy over precisely the same thing - using public funds to make short pseudo-journalistic films touting controversial policies and passing them on to local television news stations, which have aired them without comment.

Both the Bush and the Schwarzenegger administrations have gone so far as to script introductory lines for the news anchor to read out - noting with satisfaction that in many cases their scripts have been followed to the letter. The phenomenon, known to its detractors as "covert propaganda" and to its advocates as the harmless business of putting out video news releases, is deeply troubling in a country that prides itself on the independence and "objectivity" of the Fourth Estate.

The controversy consists of two distinct parts. The first is the questionable legality of the officials' actions, which have come under challenge from congressional and legislative oversight committees. And the second is the questionable ethics of the television news directors who permit the segments to air without so much as a balancing comment from government critics.

Most of the stations that have used the segments - on subjects as varied as the Iraq war and Governor Schwarzenegger's controversial plans to curtail the power of teachers' and nurses' unions - have been small, relatively impoverished ones which rely on news feeds of all kinds to fill their schedules. In some cases, however, the segments have been aired in big cities including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

Last month, the investigative arm of Congress, the Government Accountability Office, issued a damning report on the Bush administration's adoption of the practice, concluding that their clips were intentionally deceptive. "Prepackaged news stories can be utilized without violating the law," US Comptroller David Walker wrote, "so long as there is clear disclosure to the television viewing audience that this material was prepared by, or in cooperation with, the government department of agency."

An initial finding by California's Legislative Analyst's office last week found no legal basis for the Schwarzenegger administration's video releases. Los Angeles lawmaker Gloria Romero told a state Senate hearing: "You have a fake reporter reporting the news as if it were real. This is propaganda, produced at taxpayer expense."The leaderships in both Washington and Sacramento have hired accomplished former television reporters to lend a veneer of plausibility to the reports, even though they contain no government criticism whatsoever.

- INDEPENDENT