How Government Agencies Produce Pre-Packaged TV Segments the Media Runs as News

A new report by the FBI and Department of Homeland Security has found that al Qaeda may have already discussed plans to hijack charter planes, helicopters and other general aviation aircraft because they are less guarded than commercial airliners.

The internal report - obtained by The New York Times - detailed particular vulnerabilities in what it called "the largely unregulated" area of general aviation. The report makes clear that counterterrorism officials still consider the aviation industry to be a prime target for major attacks.

While the news grabbed headlines this past weekend, the Transportation Security Administration has been spinning a very different story. The TSA has been putting out video news releases that have been broadcast on local news stations as real news. This is an example.

* Video News Release produced by the Transportation Security Administration.

That was a video news release featuring a "reporter" who is actually a public-relations professional working under a false name for the Transportation Security Administration. Yesterday, The New York Times featured an extensive front-page investigation detailing the extent that pre-packaged news releases - produced by the federal government - are being used by television stations all across the country.

The article reports that at least 20 federal agencies - including the Defense Department and the Census Bureau - have distributed hundreds of television news segments in the past four years. Many were then broadcast on local stations without crediting the government as the source of the information.

The article goes on to state that "the administration's efforts to generate positive news coverage have been considerably more pervasive than previously known. At the same time, records and interviews suggest widespread complicity or negligence by television stations." Later the article says that "some reports were produced to support the administration's most cherished policy objectives like regime change in Iraq and Medicare reform...They often feature quote, unquote "interviews" with senior administration officials in which questions are scripted and answers rehearsed. Critics are excluded as are any hints of controversy, waste or mismanagement."

This is another example of a video news release produced by the State Department.

* Video News Release produced by the State Department.

We go to Madison, Wisconsin to speak with John Stauber - whose organization PR Watch has been tracking the rise of government and corporate-produced news for years.

* John Stauber, Executive Director of the Center for Media and Democracy, publishers of PR Watch.

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