[Peace-discuss] RE: Segment from New York Times Article on "Prepackaged News"

[Phil Stinard]

This stuff isn't harmless, or balanced, as WCIA implies.  We are also being 
fed government propaganda on the safety of the food supply (think mad cow) 
and genetically engineered organisms.  Don't worry, be happy!

--Phil

>Date: Sun, 13 Mar 2005 19:29:43 -0800 (PST)
>From: David Green <davegreen48 at yahoo.com>
>Subject: [Peace-discuss] Segment from New York Times Article on
>	"Prepackaged	News"
>To: Peace Discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
>Message-ID: <20050314032943.18852.qmail at web41012.mail.yahoo.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
>Meeting a Need: Rising Budget Pressures, Ready-to-Run
>Segments
>
>WCIA is a small station with a big job in central
>Illinois.
>
>Each weekday, WCIA's news department produces a
>three-hour morning program, a noon broadcast and three
>evening programs. There are plans to add a 9 p.m.
>broadcast. The staff, though, has been cut to 37 from
>39. "We are doing more with the same," said Jim P.
>Gee, the news director.
>
>Farming is crucial in Mr. Gee's market, yet with so
>many demands, he said, "it is hard for us to justify
>having a reporter just focusing on agriculture."
>
>To fill the gap, WCIA turned to the Agriculture
>Department, which has assembled one of the most
>effective public relations operations inside the
>federal government. The department has a Broadcast
>Media and Technology Center with an annual budget of
>$3.2 million that each year produces some 90 "mission
>messages" for local stations - mostly feature segments
>about the good works of the Agriculture Department.
>
>"I don't want to use the word 'filler,' per se, but
>they meet a need we have," Mr. Gee said.
>
>The Agriculture Department's two full-time reporters,
>Bob Ellison and Pat O'Leary, travel the country filing
>reports, which are vetted by the department's office
>of communications before they are distributed via
>satellite and mail. Alisa Harrison, who oversees the
>communications office, said Mr. Ellison and Mr.
>O'Leary provide unbiased, balanced and accurate
>coverage.
>
>"They cover the secretary just like any other
>reporter," she said.
>
>Invariably, though, their segments offer critic-free
>accounts of the department's policies and programs. In
>one report, Mr. Ellison told of the agency's efforts
>to help Florida clean up after several hurricanes.
>
>''They've done a fantastic job,'' a grateful local
>official said in the segment.
>
>More recently, Mr. Ellison reported that Mike Johanns,
>the new agriculture secretary, and the White House
>were determined to reopen Japan to American beef
>products. Of his new boss, Mr. Ellison reported, ''He
>called Bush the best envoy in the world.''
>
>WCIA, based in Champaign, has run 26 segments made by
>the Agriculture Department over the past three months
>alone. Or put another way, WCIA has run 26 reports
>that did not cost it anything to produce.
>
>Mr. Gee, the news director, readily acknowledges that
>these accounts are not exactly independent,
>tough-minded journalism. But, he added: ''We don't
>think they're propaganda. They meet our journalistic
>standards. They're informative. They're balanced.''
>
>More than a year ago, WCIA asked the Agriculture
>Department to record a special sign-off that implies
>the segments are the work of WCIA reporters. So, for
>example, instead of closing his report with ''I'm Bob
>Ellison, reporting for the U.S.D.A.,'' Mr. Ellison
>says, ''With the U.S.D.A., I'm Bob Ellison, reporting
>for 'The Morning Show.'''
>
>Mr. Gee said the customized sign-off helped raise
>''awareness of the name of our station.'' Could it
>give viewers the idea that Mr. Ellison is reporting on
>location with the U.S.D.A. for WCIA? ''We think
>viewers can make up their own minds,'' Mr. Gee said.
>
>Ms. Harrison, the Agriculture Department press
>secretary, said the WCIA sign-off was an exception.
>The general policy, she said, is to make clear in each
>segment that the reporter works for the department. In
>any event, she added, she did not think there was much
>potential for viewer confusion. ''It's pretty clear to
>me,'' she said.