John C. Stauber" (by way of pgp@pgpmedia.com (pgpMedia)) on Mon, 12 May 1997 00:10:57 +0200 (MET DST) |
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<nettime> Stauber 'counter clio' award |
Dear friends, Here is the document I'm distributing at the 'counter clio awards' this Tuesday at NYU. This isn't my brief presentation, but rather the documentation to go with it. Best regards, John Stauber 3318 Gregory Street, Madison, WI 53711 Ph (608) 233-3346 5/13/97 'Counter Clio Awards', NY University, NYC Remarks of John Stauber, editor of PR Watch (1.) 'Toxic Sludge Is Good For You Award' to TV News Directors for 'The Advertising Best Disguised As Journalism' On the occasion of the 'First Annual Counter-Clios' I am presenting a 'Toxic Sludge Is Good For You' award to America's TV News Directors for annually airing as 'news' thousands of Video News Releases. VNRs are biased and deceptive propaganda disguised as TV journalism and provided free by PR agencies on behalf of corporate and government clients. Through the widespread use of unidentified VNRs, TV news directors daily deceive and mislead the public, exploiting an undeserved trust in electronic journalism. VNRs replace real journalism with fake news paid for by corporate advertisers, and allow TV stations to layoff journalists by replacing them with free VNR footage. The Radio and TV News Directors Association (RTNDA) recommends that VNRs be identified when used, but this is almost never done. The RTNDA is powerless to enforce even the most minimal standard of ethical disclosure. A recent investors newsletter accurately and bluntly describes the situation while recommending a stock 'buy' in Medialink, a leading VNR distribution company. "A VNR is the video equivalent of a conventional paper press release and is used ... to introduce a new product or service, explain a technological breakthrough, communicate during a crisis, or advocate a position on an issue of public concern. Medialink provides its products free-of-charge to television and radio newsrooms in order to remove the stigma of 'paid advertising' that would create a conflict of interest for news programing. "News programing hours have more than doubled in the past five years, and television stations are scrambling ... to fill their programing needs. Medialink supplies ... newsworthy products that news producers and directors utilize extensively on a daily basis. ...[Medialink] routinely has VNRs that are used on national telecasts by all four major networks. "A 1994 Roper Survey indicated that 72% of Americans get their news from TV as opposed to only 40% from newspapers. More important, by a margin greater than 2 to 1, Americans believe that what they see on TV is more credible than what they read in a newspaper. ...While Americans watch more television, they ... tune out commercial messages. ...[C]onveying a corporate message to a consumer via news is potentially more effective than advertising." (2.) I am tonight airing footage from a VNR described in my book Toxic Sludge Is Good For You, to illustrate my point. "Hill & Knowlton ... line[d] up national environmental groups behind a coalition called "Partners for Sun Protection Awareness," a front group for Hill & Knowlton's client, drug transnational Schering-Plough. Best known for Coppertone(tm) sun lotion, Schering-Plough uses the coalition to "educate" the public about the dangers of skin cancer deaths, cataracts and damaged immune systems due to the atmosphere's thinning ozone layer and increased ultraviolet radiation. The campaign urges people to 'liberally apply a sunscreen . . . to all exposed parts of the body before going outdoors.' "Hill &Knowlton successfully enlisted leaders of the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club to add their names to the "Partners for Sun Protection" letterhead. Apparently these groups are little more than a dash of green window-dressing for the campaign. The "Partners" offered no proposals for preventing further thinning of the ozone layer. A representative of one of the environmental groups, who asked not to be named, said he was ignorant of the Schering-Plough funding and its hidden agenda to sell sun lotion. The best prevention for sun-caused skin cancer is, of course, to cover up completely, but saying so would be market suicide for the world's largest maker of suntan lotion and purveyor of the sexy "Coppertone(tm) tan." The campaign's clever "video news release" shows scores of sexy, scantily-clad sun worshipers still over-exposing themselves to UV rays, while slathering themselves with sun oil. The VNR does not mention Schering-Plough, the funder of the PR campaign. Ironically, Hill &Knowlton has also worked for corporate clients who hired them to belittle the environmental risks of global climate change. (3.) ______________ 1.) John Stauber is editor of PR Watch, a quarterly providing investigative reporting on the PR industry. He and Sheldon Rampton are co-authors of Toxic Sludge Is Good For You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry (Common Courage Press). For more info visit: www.prwatch.org/ 2.) "Medialink Worldwide, Inc., All the news that's fit to view," Investment Research Department, Wheat First Butcher Singer, 3/10/97. Contact: Miles D. Russ, 804-782-3626 3.) Stauber & Rampton, Toxic Sludge Is Good For You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry, Common Courage Press, Monroe, ME. P.71 --- # distributed via nettime-l : no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a closed moderated mailinglist for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@icf.de and "info nettime" in the msg body # URL: http://www.desk.nl/~nettime/ contact: nettime-owner@icf.de