Remember "Karen Ryan" the fake Reporter? A "Sinclair Broadcaster!"

[KoKo]

SINCLAIR AIRS FAKE NEWS BROADCASTS PRODUCED BY BUSH ADMINISTRATION: In March, it was discovered that the Bush Administration was producing "television news stories, written and paid for by the government, which have the appearance of legitimate news segments delivered by independent reporters," and distributing them to local newscasts as a way of promoting administration policies – including its ill-conceived Medicare prescription drug law. On the broadcasts, a public relations professional named Karen Ryan pretended to be a reporter. Among the stations which aired the administration propaganda as news: WPGH in Pittsburgh "the Sinclair Broadcasting station that fired much of its news staff in favor of feeds from a centralized newsroom in Baltimore."

SINCLAIR REQUIRES JOURNALISTS TO READ PRO-BUSH STATEMENTS: In September 2001, Sinclair Broadcasting required its affiliates to air messages "conveying full support" for the Bush administration. At a Baltimore affiliate, WBFF "officials required news and sports anchors, even a weather forecaster, to read the messages, "which included statements such as " wants you to know that we stand 100% behind our President." Several WBFF staffers objected on the grounds that reading the statements would "erode their reputations as objective journalists" because it made them appear to be "endorsing specific government actions."

[LittleApple81]

1. LINK? N/T

[SoCalDem]

2. found a link

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04080/288764.stm

She's not a reporter -- she just plays one on TV
Saturday, March 20, 2004

By Dennis Roddy

Karen Ryan was happy to hear my voice.

"At least you called to ask if I'm a real person," she said. After a week of being called everything from an actress to a hooker, a little self-doubt was inevitable.

snip....

She ended each report with, "In Washington, this is Karen Ryan reporting." That's how she closed a spot touting the Bush administration's new Medicare prescription package, commissioned by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. But this is an election year. Someone noticed the self-promotional spot and, in no time, the General Accounting Office opened an investigation and the public howled indignantly.

The focus of public fury is, as usual, the least blameworthy target. Ryan has been called a phony. One newspaper editorial told people that, if they see her, don't believe her. Chris Matthews, onetime chief of staff for Tip O'Neill, used the term "hooker." When Tip O'Neill's fixer calls you a hooker, that's got to hurt.

snip...

On KMAX in Sacramento, she told viewers of the 9 p.m. show about how frequent flier miles were becoming easier to use, and interviewed a spokesman from Capital One, a credit card vendor, to show how. In Atlanta, WAGA aired her report on the new Medicare prescription benefits program. Viewers in Tampa turned to WTSP and learned why money spent now on seeing a doctor saves money later. In Pittsburgh, WPGH, the Sinclair Broadcasting station that fired much of its news staff in favor of feeds from a centralized newsroom in Baltimore, offered Karen Ryan on Aug. 16.

[maggrwaggr]

3. wow. I, took, would love a link

[SoCalDem]

4. post #2 HAS the link :)

:P

[KoKo]

5. Here's the Link to the full Sinclair Group Report.!

http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=6228#1

Thanks SoCal. I had to leave and forgot to post link to the articles.

[Generator]

6. UGH this is frightening, scary, creepy and guess where I saw it reported:

The Daily Show! Is the Daily Show the best place for real news in this country now????????

Then I knew Democracy (that's right Big D) was in trouble.

When they control the information, they control everything.

I said on another site(and nobody was interested there) that this is in many ways the creepiest, most Orwellian thing BushCO has ever done.

A reporter who is not a reporter, but an actress shilling for the Bush administration and it being sold as NEWS.

Come on America, pretty soon you will be drinking koolaid as Bill Maher said on Hardball.

[JHB]

9. Corporations have been doing this for years...

The Bushies are just applying it to political PR.

Of course, it's still LYING.

After watching the documentary "Saving the Salmon," television viewers in Washington state probably came away with the impression that the state's timber industry was doing a pretty good job of protecting local salmon. Since the Sept. 28 piece appeared with the logo of local station KIRO-TV, one might have assumed that normal journalistic rules applied.
Not so. Though the logo appears, the documentary was actually a half-hour infomercial paid for by the Washington Forest Protection Association (WFPA), a timber industry group whose members include Weyerhaeuser and Boise Cascade. It seems KIRO and WFPA have a deal that guarantees a certain amount of advertising and programming. The KIRO producer who worked on the piece, Pat Fisk, works not in the station's news division, but in advertising.

As the Seattle Weekly reported (9/28/00), "The only hint that something was amiss--beyond the strangely biased content of the program itself--was one brief announcement at the beginning that said: 'The following program was produced in cooperation with the Washington Forest Protection Association.'" Environmental advocates or critics of the timber industry were nowhere to be found in the program.

The WFPA's Cindy Mitchell confirmed that the group is "in partnership with KIRO," but said she wasn't sure "whether to describe the program and the short announcements as PSAs, commercials or something else." "I don't know the difference," she told the Seattle Weekly.
http://www.fair.org/ff2000.html#powerful

[G_j]

7. good find!

well that figures. And we thought Clear Channel was bad..
Sinclair gives an even higher percentage of their contributions to Republicans than CC.

[supernova]

8. Great work KoKo01 and SoCalDem

:bounce:

It just reinforces the idea that Sinclair certainly isn't interesting in informing the public, only selling advertising time to make revenue.


Bring Back the Fairness Doctrine!!!!

[SoCalDem]

12. It gets BETTER.. in case you have not seen this

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1503645

[blm]

10. Geez. Propaganda Central for the BFEE.

.

[Skittles]

11. Pravda

F***ING PRAVDA

[redqueen]

13. I love this place!

Thanks all of you for the info!

:loveya: