The Federal Communications Commission has mailed letters to the owners of 77 television stations inquiring about their use of video news releases, a type of programming critics refer to as”fake news.”
Video news releases are packaged news stories that usually employ actors to portray reporters who are paid by commercial or government groups.
The letters were sparked by allegations that television stations have been airing the videos as part of their news programs without telling viewers who paid for them.
This phenomenon isn’t new — in fact, Peter Morgan and I covered it in our 1997 book, in a chapter that you can read for free online here — but it’s worth keeping this in mind whenever Big Media folks criticize blogs’ journalistic standards.