From The Independent (UK) newspaper:
Bush 'planted fake news stories on American TV'
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.
Investigators from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are seeking information about stations across the country after a report produced by a campaign group detailed the extraordinary extent of the use of such items.
I fear for the cause of genuine democracy in the USA. I fear that November may be its last-chance saloon. The concentration of wealth and power may be leading America to become essentially a one-party state.
Yes, the extent of this practice is alarming, but so is the media's willingness to be co-opted:
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.
The article shows that sometimes the focus is on war propaganda or issues of national security:
Among items provided by the Bush administration to news stations was one in which an Iraqi-American in Kansas City was seen saying "Thank you Bush. Thank you USA" in response to the 2003 fall of Baghdad. The footage was actually produced by the State Department, one of 20 federal agencies that have produced and distributed such items.
But much of this effort is directed at enhancing corporate control of American minds more generally:
Many of the corporate reports, produced by drugs manufacturers such as Pfizer, focus on health issues and promote the manufacturer's product. One example cited by the report was a Hallowe'en segment produced by the confectionery giant Mars, which featured Snickers, M&Ms and other company brands. While the original VNR disclosed that it was produced by Mars, such information was removed when it was broadcast by the television channel - in this case a Fox-owned station in St Louis, Missouri.
This isn't just advertizing, it's Thought Control, because it's aimed at producing and manipulating biased thinking without the thinker even being aware of the bias infecting the content of thought, and because it aims to be systematic and pervasive, rendering resistance as difficult as possible.
With Thought Control now on the scene, Thought Crime cannot be far behind.
We've seen the planting of false news stories already aimed at legitimating aggression against Iran, and of course we had a whole raft of them leading up to the invasion of Iraq.
We've seen the effort to end 'net neutrality'.
Exposure helps, but you know the dirty rotten bastards are going to keep on trying.
Kudos to the folks at the Center for Media and Democracy, as well as bodies like FAIR and Media Lens. But for resistance to Thought Control efforts to succeed, we need to expand popular awareness of them.