Release the release

Hey, so the editorial board met at our office on the 214th floor of the IDS Conglomerated Media building, and we think we've come up with a heck of an idea to improve the paper -- but we figured we'd run it by you readers, first. Ready? Here goes:\nHow about if we insert a few news stories written by public relations firms looking to push a product -- but (and here's the important bit) we don't tell you which stories they are? Wouldn't that be brilliant? We save time and lucre, the PR firms get paid, and you find out about all the exciting things their clients want you to know -- everyone wins!\nWait -- you're making a face like you just stepped in something stinky. What, you don't dig this idea? But you're already seeing it on the local TV news...\nOh, you didn't know that? Oops, our bad.\nYeah, last month a media watchdog group called the Center for Media and Democracy released a report examining the use of video news releases (VNRs) and satellite media tours (SMTs) in newscasts by 77 local television stations over the course of 10 months. VNRs, by the way, are short segments done by a PR firm in such a way as to mimic a regular TV news story -- while SMTs are bunches of \none-on-one interviews between notable figures (say, celebs) and individual reporters, all organized by the notable figures' PR reps. Well, in their study, the Center for Media and Democracy found 98 occasions when VNRs or SMTs were aired without their origins being disclosed to viewers. In addition, to quote the report, "In each case, these 77 television stations actively disguised the sponsored content to make it appear to be their own reporting. In almost all cases, stations failed to balance the clients' messages with independently-gathered footage or basic journalistic research. More than one-third of the time, stations aired the pre-packaged VNR in its entirety."\nAmong the stations singled out were Indianapolis' own Fox WXIN-59 and ABC WRTV-6 -- also known as channels 6 and 11 on your cable box. Regarding WXIN-59, the report claims that "In the 8 a.m. news bulletin on November 9, 2005 the station broadcast an edited and re-voiced video release produced by D.S. Simon Productions for Trend Micro on e-mail 'phishing' scams. The VNR was incorporated into a nationally syndicated TV segment hosted by 'CyberGuy' Kurt Knutsson." Meanwhile, for WRTV-6, it says that "In the 5 a.m. news bulletin \non June 10, 2005 the station broadcast an edited and re-voiced version of a video news release produced by MultiVu for the American Dental Association on saliva testing for diseases."\nGeez, it's a shame that you readers seem so down on this idea -- doesn't trading in a bit of transparency and objectivity to save journalists some work sound like a good deal? Does to us -- but, then, we can always use more time to practice beating the sports desk in Halo 2.