Senate Votes to Ban Video News Releases

[tuvor]

WASHINGTON - The Senate passed a measure Thursday that would stop government agencies from using taxpayer funds to disguise video press releases as real news, putting the brakes on a product Democrats call propaganda. President Bush cautioned that some responsibility for full disclosure rests with news outlets.

"It's deceptive to the American people if it's not disclosed," Bush told the American Society of Newspaper Editors on Thursday. "But it's incumbent upon people who use them to say, 'This news clip was produced by the federal government.'"

Senators voted 98-0 to attach the measure, sponsored by Sen. Robert Byrd (news, bio, voting record), D-W.Va., to the $80.6 billion emergency spending bill to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Under it, taxpayer funds would be prohibited from being used for prepackaged news stories unless those stories contain "clear notification within the text or audio of the prepackaged news" that discloses it was prepared or funded by a federal agency.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=512&e=8&u=/ap/congress_fake_news

[Melodybe]

1. HA HA

[derby378]

2. It's a start - but what's the catch? (n/t)

[rocktivity]

3. Is the catch that they can now use PRIVATE funds?

:scared:
rocknation

[Alpharetta]

13. no, they can still use public funds

they can do whatever they want as long as they include the disclaimer at the video's end. Too bad if local stations (Sinclair, Fox) drop the disclaimer.

[OrlandoGator]

4. The catch: "Except when Republicans do it"

I imagine.

[Eric J in MN]

7. The catch is that they will put a notice before or after the piece

about the origin, which the local news won't show.

They have should required a gov't label in the top-right corner throughout the piece.

Or better yet, truly banned video news releases.

[Canuckistanian]

5. Nice Loophole

You could sail a fully loaded supertanker though that gap.

[proud patriot]

6. YAY !

:woohoo:

[Roland99]

8. Pretty damn sad the Senate even had to waste it's time to do this.

It shouldn't even be an issue.

[Eric J in MN]

9. The AP headline is out-of-whack with the text.

Requiring a quick disclaimer at some point is hardly BANNING video news releases.

[BadGimp]

10. why was it so easy?

smells fishy..

[PeaceProgProsp]

11. That's OK. Fox will make their own and disseminate them.

[UpInArms]

12. Senator Byrd

that was an awesome move!

:yourock: