Fake News stories on Medicare

Medicare bill proposed to cost less than 400 Billion. Many in Congress, from both sides of the aisle, say they won't vote for it if it costs more than 400 B. An admin who knows the actual cost communicates with other employees that if he talks to Congress about the actual cost (550 Billion) that he could be fired.
Bill passes. Then we get the full details on the cost.

Now this.

I had heard a little about this on the web, but when I saw the ad on the Daily Show is was freaking shocked. It was presented as a news story and I thought "that was a little one sided..." then they said that the piece was a fake news story produced by the Bush administration and that the reporter's name, "Karen Ryan" was made up. The "reporter" was a voice over actress.

Even the Daily Show audience, who is used to fake news, gasped.
When the Daily Show video hits their site, I will post it here.
BTW, Is it sad statement that I had to hear about this and see the Bush ad on the Daily Show? You better believe it.

While the Clinton administration produced a piece like this regarding issues on Medicare, it was prefaced with a statement identifying it as produced by the government. This video, sent to news stations across the country, did not include that same identification. In fact, these video spots where distributed to local news stations where reporters recieved the scripts they where instructed to read before playing the clips.
quote:

In December, President Bush signed into law the first-ever prescription drug benefit for people with Medicare. Since then, there have been a lot of questions about how the law will help older Americans and people with disabilities. Reporter Karen Ryan helps sort through the details

The prepared scripts ensured the clips where perfectly blended into the news broadcast. Only people who positively knew there was no reporter by that name in the service of station would know they where watching a propaganda.


Here's a story from the Guardian.

US government faked Bush news reports

Chris Tryhorn
Tuesday March 16, 2004
The Guardian

TV news reports in America that showed President George Bush getting a standing ovation from potential voters have been exposed as fake, it has emerged.

The US government admitted it paid actors to pose as journalists in video news releases sent to TV stations intending to convey support for new laws about health benefits.

Investigators are examining the film segments, in which actors pretending to be journalists praise the benefits of the new law passed last year by President Bush, to see if they could be construed as propaganda.

Two of the films are signed off by "Karen Ryan", who was an actor hired to read a script prepared by the government, according to production company Home Front Communications.

Another video, intended for Hispanic viewers, shows a government official being interviewed in Spanish by a actor posing as a reporter with the name "Alberto Garcia".

One segment shows a pharmacist telling an elderly customer the new law "helps you better afford your medications".

"It sounds like a good idea," the customer says, to which the pharmacist replies, "A very good idea."

And in some scenes President Bush is shown receiving a standing ovation from a crowd cheering him as he signed the Medicare law, which is designed to help elderly people with prescriptions.

The government also prepared scripts to be used by news anchors. "In December, President Bush signed into law the first-ever prescription drug benefit for people with Medicare," the script reads.

"Since then, there have been a lot of questions about how the law will help older Americans and people with disabilities. Reporter Karen Ryan helps sort through the details." The "reporter" then explains the benefits of the new law.

Lawyers from the investigative arm of Congress discovered the tapes as part of an investigation into federal money that was used to publicise the new law.

They will be keen to ascertain whether the government might have misled viewers by failing to reveal the source of the videos, which were broadcast in Oklahoma, Louisiana and other states.

"Video news releases" of this sort have been used in the US since the 1980s, but the way they blur the lines between news and advertising troubles many media experts and campaigners.

The government defended the videos, which Democrats described as "disturbing". "The use of video news releases is a common, routine practice in government and the private sector," a health department spokesman told the New York Times.

VNRs are also used in Europe but a furore surrounding a Greenpeace video package about its campaign to prevent the dumping of Shell's Brent Spar oil platform sent to British broadcasters some years ago led to new rules clamping down on their use.

Greenpeace's sophisticated media offensive - including the provision of emotive film footage of its occupation of the platform - resulted in one-dimensional coverage by BBC and ITN, news chiefs admitted at the time.

Guidelines were subsequently drawn up to label video news releases as such - a category which the regular Osama bin Laden videos now fall.

Note: The General Accounting Office has opened an investigation into these pieces...

 

Remind me to bring this (and other threads) that no neos chime in on the next time they accuse the liberals on the board of ostriching.