Broadcasters Must Reveal Video Clips' Sources, FCC Says (washingtonpost.com)

Link: Broadcasters Must Reveal Video Clips' Sources, FCC Says (washingtonpost.com).

Broadcasters Must Reveal Video Clips' Sources, FCC Says

By Frank Ahrens
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 14, 2005; Page A02

Television broadcasters must disclose to viewers the origin of video news releases produced by the government or corporations when the material runs on the public airwaves, the Federal Communications Commission said yesterday.

The FCC's ruling comes as video news releases produced by the Bush administration and aired as part of local television news reports have come under attack from critics who call them unlabeled Republican propaganda.

More information at link above. I think a bill as also passed by large margins today in the Senate. I will try to find more information on that.

This is a small step in the direction of truth in journalism. I have written government press releases and then seen them turned into AP stories and which ended up in papers looking like research done by some hardworking journalist. Hell of a deal for our agency at the time, but it made me think that every news story in newsapers remotely related to politics or government should come with footnotes indicating if it was from an agency or corporate news release, etc. etc.

**Stay tuned. Maybe we will learn that Sen. Byrd did us another big favor--Doug Wiken