NY1 (TV Station)

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Fake TV News: A CMD Special Report
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This article is part of the Center for Media and Democracy's special report, Fake TV News: Widespread and Undisclosed.
Click here to read the report summary.

NY1 is a New York, New York cable television station.

Station Owner

Time Warner

Use of Video News Releases and/or Satellite Media Tours

In the 8:00 pm news bulletin on February 6, 2006, NY1 broadcast an edited and re-voiced video news release (VNR) produced by D S Simon Productions for Sandals Resorts, Viking River Cruises and Air Tahiti Nui on romantic getaway ideas. The original VNR featured Valarie D'Elia, who also "reported" the segment on NY1. As detailed in the Center for Media and Democracy's April 2006 report "Fake TV News": [1]

The only TV station to pick up the VNR was NY1, the 24-hour cable news network owned by Time Warner. The reporter: Valarie D'Elia. In her weekly "Travel With Val" segment, D'Elia adapted the VNR into a live studio report, replacing the audio narrative of D S Simon publicist Tommy Mann, changing the order of client plugs, and removing her own recorded soundbites. Edited into the feature was online and phone contact information to learn more about Sandals Resorts, Viking River Cruises and Air Tahiti Nui.
At no point during the broadcast did D'Elia or NY1 anchor Lewis Dodley reveal that the entire story was funded and furnished by the very three companies being profiled, or that D'Elia was a paid participant in the promotional materials of those same companies. One can only assume that D'Elia isn't too concerned about hiding her conflict of interest, since she offers VNR services on her own website.

In the 9:30 pm newscast on August 16, 2006, NY1 aired a segment by health and fitness reporter Kafi Drexel. As the Center for Media and Democracy's November 2006 report "Still Not the News" describes: [2]

More than half of the NY1 segment came from the American College of Physicians VNR, including a soundbite from the study's lead author, Dr. Michael Shlipak. He linked results from the kidney test to patients' susceptibility to heart disease, heart attacks and strokes.
In addition to the edited and re-voiced VNR, the NY1 segment included two soundbites from an interview conducted by the station, with Dr. Morton Kleiner of Staten Island University Hospital. Kleiner served as a counter-balance to the VNR's glowing coverage of the kidney test, saying that newer test approaches "may be better." He also suggested that overall health monitoring might be the most useful approach to managing kidney disease and related problems—a stunningly common sense argument not mentioned in the original VNR. ...
In addition to including Kleiner's independent assessment, NY1 disclosed the VNR to its viewers—sort of.
Most of the aired segment came from the VNR, but an on-screen label reading "Amer. Coll. of Physicians" only appeared briefly in the opening frames. Given the ambiguous and fleeting nature of this disclosure, viewers—if they noticed the label at all—likely assumed that just a few seconds of footage came from an outside source. No reasonable person (who didn't have access to the original VNR) would conclude that the majority of the segment actually came from a PR firm.

Contact Details

NY1 News
75 Ninth Avenue
New York, NY, 10011
Phone: 212-379-3311
Web: http://www.ny1.com/

SourceWatch Resources

External links

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