Video news releases

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Video news releases (VNRs) are video clips that are indistinguishable from traditional news clips and are sometimes screened unedited by television stations without the identification of the original producers or sponsors, who are commonly corporations, government agencies, or non governmental organizations.

Medialink Worldwide, one of the largest producers and distributors of VNRs, states in its 2003 annual report that a" VNR is a television news story that communicates an entity's public relations or corporate message. It is paid for by the corporation or organization seeking to announce news and is delivered without charge to the media." [1]

While the company likens VNRs as akin to the traditional hard copy news release it acknowledges they are widely used in newsrooms. "Produced in broadcast news style, VNRs relay the news of a product launch, medical discovery, corporate merger event, timely feature or breaking news directly to television news decision-makers who may use the video and audio material in full or edited form. Most major television stations in the world now use VNRs, some on a regular basis," Medialink states.

KEF Media Associates explains on its website that "VNRs deliver specific client messages within the credible editorial content of a newscast". [2]

How VNRs are produced and distributed

"Working closely with clients, Medialink's team of highly experienced broadcast and network radio professionals instantly translates clients' messages into effective video or audio news stories. All aspects of production, including scripting, editing, narration and sound bites of the news story are custom-built and designed to reach specifically targeted audiences," Medialink Worldwide states.

Getting under consumers radar

While expensive compared to the cost of a traditional news releases they allow a sponsor to present their message without being filtered by journalists. They are commonly used unedited by small regional television stations that have limited budgets for news production or are understaffed. While some stations have a policy of not using VNR's, public relations practitioners commonly cater for this by also providing a series of clips designed to be used as stock footage.

On a October 2003 discussion panel on VNRs Larry Moscowitz, the founder and President of largest VNR producer MediaLink, candidly said their use was widespread. "We determined prima facie and scientifically and electronically that every television station in America with a newscast has used and probably uses regularly this material from corporations and organizations that we provide as VNRs or B-Roll or other terminology we may use," he said. [3]

Fellow panellist and former CBS correspondent Deborah Potter, who is director of the News Lab a Washington, D.C. nonprofit dedicated to quality local television explained that stations were tempted to use VNR's because they made meeting filling program timeslots easy. "They allow newsrooms to do less of their own work without fear of running out of material before the end of the hour. It's a concern, and it ought to be a concern, frankly, for viewers if much of the material that they're starting to get on the news isn't news," she said.

In March 2000 Candace White, marketing professor at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville co-authored a report with Mark D. Harmon for the Public Relations Society of America titled "How video news releases are used in television broadcasts". On the panel with Moscowitz and Potter, White said that the same self-interest that encourages news directors to use VNRs dictates that the material is used responsibly. "I trust news producers to be able to weed out true news value; I give them credit for being able to recognize blatant sales pitches. Our study found that the corporate videos were used the least, and the ones about health and safety were used the most," she said.

The Center for Media and Democracy's Executive Director John Stauber disagreed. "The use of VNRs amounts to systematic deception of viewers, both by the hidden interested parties behind them, and by news organizations with impure motives themselves," he said.

Hustling VNRs

A 'tricks of the trade' guide to VNRs in PR Week explained "don't try to fool producers by acting as though your VNR is not being pitched for promotional purposes".

"If your VNR has one or two product mentions, tell the producer immediately, but gear the bulk of the pitch toward why the piece is relevant now, what makes it newsworthy," the PR Week guide explained.[4]

By way of example, the guide pointed to a VNR produced by MediaLink to promote Jennifer Lopez's perfume, Glow. The VNR, concentrated on Lopez "as a Hispanic role model and one of People magazine's recently rated most beautiful people. The story aired on E!, Good Day Live, Extra, VH1, and even some Hispanic stations in Canada."

The head of Medialink's VNR production unit, Michelle Williams, told PR Week "the viewer will take away something visual before they take away something audio. Instead of plugging a product by talking about it, showing it in use".

When VNRs became the news

In a February 1992 cover article titled "Fake News" in TV Guide David Lieberman took the media and PR industry to task over the use of VNR's. He argued that if footage from VNR's was used in news it should be labelled so that viewers were aware of its origin. If not, he argued, media outlets risked undermining their own credibility if they "pretend out of pride that what they broadcast is real news, instead of labeling it for what it is."

"There's a good chance that some of the news they [the public] see will be fake. Not that it's necessarily inaccurate. Just that it was made to plug something else. And it's something the PR community has grown skillful at providing," he wrote.

The original article generated a largely dismissive response from the PR industry. O'Dwyers PR Services Report noted that the President of Medialink, Laurence Moskowitz, wrote to Lieberman complaining that his article "lapsed into tabloid journalism, distorting what was otherwise a well thought out report on the impact of video PR on TV news." Moskowitz took issue with the Fake news headline too for creating the impression that "the news has been faked or is not valid just because a TV producer relied on a VNR for story elements."

"There would not be any business pages in newspapers, no gossip columns in any magazines, no video of the surface of the moon if it were not for PR efforts," Moskowitz wrote.

However, O'Dwyers PR Services Report reported in June 1992 the Public Relations Service Council (PRSC) saw the need to assemble a committee to develop standards governing the level of disclosure in VNR's. Later that year Mokowititz told a Medialink sponsored workshop that the PRSC had adoped a "Code of Good Practice" for VNR producers. "No VNR should tell a lie," he said.

As for the possibility that VNRs touting drugs - accounting for many of those produced - may be regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Moskowitz was reported stating that it was an issue that "will go away". "VNRs are free speech. They are not forced down news director's throats," he said.

In April 1993 TV Guide once more returned to the subject with an article titled Fake News: All the PR that News Can Use".

The White House defends VNRs

Following a March 2005 New York Times report on the use by government of VNRs, White House spokesman Scott McLellan was asked at a media briefing whether their use was "legal and legitimate ... without disclaimers that they're government productions, as long as they meet some standard of factual basis?"

"First of all, we're talking about informational news releases. And the Department of Justice has issued an opinion saying that as long as this is factual information about department or agency programs, it is perfectly appropriate. There is a memorandum that we -- or the Department of Justice sent to agencies and departments last week expressing the view of the Justice Department. And the informational news releases that you're referring to are something that had been in use for many years. It goes back to the early '90s, both in the private and public sectors; many federal agencies have used this for quite some time as an informational tool to provide factual information to the American people," he said.[5]

"And my understanding is that when these informational releases are sent out, that it's very clear to the TV stations where they are coming from. So that information, as I understand it, is disclosed. And the Justice Department opinion talks about the importance of making sure that it is factual information and not crossing the line into advocacy," he said.

Bush was asked at the American Society of Newspaper Editors Convention in April 2005 whether the use of VNR's and the funding of Armstrong Williams was deceptive. "Yes, it's deceptive to the American people if it's not disclosed," he said.

After defending the use of VNR's as being legal for government agencies he echosed the PR industry view that the onus for disclosure was on the broadcasters not the producers. "But it's incumbent upon people who use them to say, this news clip was produced by the federal government," he said. [6]

A few days later Bush made it clear that the government had no intention of ensuring each VNR was captioned so that stations had no option but to disclose the origin of video material to viewers. "...Local stations ought to - if there's a deep concern about that, ought to tell their viewers what they're watching," Bush said when asked if the government would ensure all VNR footage was identified.[7]

Campaign to end fake news

You can sign the petition urging Congress and the Federal Communications Commission to toughen and enforce laws against "covert propaganda" and demand that broadcasters come clean with viewers about using government-produced news. Join others in your community to create "citizen agreements" with your local TV stations to stop fake news broadcasts.

VNRs and the corporate bottom line

Why do local TV news stations use fake video news releases in please of real news? KEF Media Associates states on its website that the "opportunity" for the use of VNR's has expanded due to to financial pressure on news rooms. "Over the last decade, network and local market nescasts have been placed under increasing pressure to become profitable. This has led to significant cost cutting in newsrooms. Because many of the cuts have been among producers and technicians whose job it is to fill the newscast time, demand has grown for news content supplied by outside sources," KEF explains. [8]

Marion Just and Tom Rosenstiel of the Project for Excellence in Journalism surveyed stations and found that the audience for TV news is shrinking, while "the companies that own these stations have generally continued to expect high earnings, usually profit margins in excess of 40 percent. To meet those demands, most stations have added programming, usually without adding resources. ... We could see the effect on the air. From 1998 to 2002, a study of 33,911 television reports found, the percentage of 'feed' material from third-party sources rose to 23 percent of all reports from 14 percent. Meanwhile, the percentage of stories that included a local correspondent fell to 43 percent from 62 percent. Local broadcasters are being asked to do more with less, and they have been forced to rely more on prepackaged news to take up the slack. So we don't have to search far to discover why the Bush administration has succeeded so well in getting its news releases on the air. The public companies that own TV stations are so intent on increasing their stock price and pleasing their shareholders that they are squeezing the news out of the news business."[9]

See John Stauber's March 14, 2005 blog posting "WANTED: 250,000 Americans to Fight Fake News & Government Propaganda for more information.

General Accountability Office reports

Case studies

Companies that produce and/or distribute video news releases

Websites with VNRs available for public viewing

In addition, the websites of local television stations often post VNRs (though not identified as such) that they've aired recently.

  • Newstream.com provides news releases distributed by MediaLink, one of the largest distributors of video, audio and print news releases.
  • VMS is a commercial service. For a fee, it tracks and provides copies of VNRs appearing in the news to its corporate clients.

SourceWatch Resources

Links to evidence to US Senate Commerce Committee hearing on VNRs

External Links

And Now, the Counterfeit News]", Editorial, New York Times, March 16, 2005.

Enron: Patron Saint of Bush's Fake News]", New York Times, March 20, 2005.

Monitoring CMS’ Vital Signs: Implementation of the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit], April 5, 2005. (Real Player format of Mark McClellan, Administrator , Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services refusing to rule out use of VNRs).

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