6 ms·

Yeah... my eyebrows raised the first time I heard about this type of thing. Someone I know was in a news segment shot and produced by some company I had never h

by hbosch 6y ago

Yeah... my eyebrows raised the first time I heard about this type of thing. Someone I know was in a news segment shot and produced by some company I had never heard of before (I don't recall the name). They said it would be on the news. The segment was produced, and when I asked where it was going to air, they said "50-60 local news stations around the country" and I was baffled... don't local news stations just produce their own news? No, not all of it. There are companies like Sinclair and Scripps that produce and purchase news segments, and then run them in their own markets, and sometimes these companies will literally BUY news from companies that the news is about! And those companies, sometimes marketing or PR companies, are telling their own stories. It's "white label news". I guess the equivalent is what we call "advertorials" online?

hbosch 6y ago
And some links for anyone who wants to see more about these topics... Sinclair Broadcasting owns local stations, most likely at least one near you: http://sbgi.net/tv-stations/ http://sbgi.net/tv-stations/ Scripps I believe is a bit smaller, but also owns a lot of local stations: https://scripps.com/our-brands/local-media/ https://scripps.com/our-brands/local-media/ So if Sinclair and Scripps both run the same newswire story, for instance, that is a country full of people getting it through their local -- often "most trusted" -- news station. A lot of stations get the "final say" on what does and doesn't run, but sometimes they do not. Wikipedia entry for "Video news release": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_news_release https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_news_release Wikipedia entry for "Satellite media tour": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_media_tour https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_media_tour And finally: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_literacy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_literacy
- zouhair 6y ago
  A video about Sinclair from Last Week Tonight With John Oliver[0] [0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvtNyOzGogc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvtNyOzGogc
- Cthulhu_ 6y ago
  Yup; don't ever believe any news outlets is independent, they are often owned by a single entity. In the UK for example, most media is owned by News Corp., aka Rupert Murdoch. They have the power to change the narrative and public opinion, and with that, sway elections in their favor. I feel like politics nowadays is not so much a fight between politicians, but between corporations with conflicting interests and the handful of people at the top behind them, and the parties paying them (including foreign powers).
  - Angostura 6y ago
    > most media is owned by News Corp This I'm afraid isn't true, though it may feel like it. None of the free-to-air TV channels are owned by News Corp, which remains the purview of BBC and ITV in the main. It has minimal investment in radio stations. It has The Sun, The Times and Sunday Times. It used to have the News of the World. It doesn't have the Mail, Express, Independent, Guardian, Mirror etc.
    - nca-peripherals 6y ago
      In terms of revenue globally, the top five are: AT&T, Comcast, Disney, ViacomCBS, and Fox. The are mainstream media oligopolies in most countries these days, but the beauty of the internet is that independent journalists and voices who have been shut-out and banned from the corporate-establishment fold like Ralph Nader and Chris Hedges can still find tiny soap-boxes to speak truth to power since almost no one else is doing it. Then there's people like Jimmy Dore who will never get taken seriously by the establishment because he doesn't have the wealth, pedigree, or entitled rich-dbag attitude to be let into their club. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentration_of_media_ownership#Top_Five https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentration_of_media_ownersh...
  - nca-peripherals 6y ago
    Competing brands of hegemonic, despotic, inverted totalitarian feudal lords vying for the Iron Throne. Bezos may ultimately be the first trillionaire as Tim Cook has clearly ran out of gas and is piloting a doomed A380 dinosaur into the drink. Ultimately, I think the first trillionaire will probably be Chinese because of China's rapid and potentially-large and long-lasting ascendancy. Ultimately, it is and always will be a powerful few who have too much against the many who have too little.
_bxg1 6y ago
But online there are legal requirements around marking ads as ads. Is there no such law for televised news?
- colejohnson66 6y ago
  The FCC’s advertising disclosure rules apply to every form of broadcast media.
- AnthonyMouse 6y ago
  Ah, but what's the definition of advertising? Probably requires the station to get paid, right? So what happens if the station airs the segment the company produced for free because it lets them be lazy and not hire as many reporters to fill their airtime? It actually becomes a tough line to draw, because a lot of huge conglomerates own media organizations. If you carry a coronavirus story produced by ABC, do you have to regard it as advertising because ABC is owned by Disney and the virus severely impacts their theme parks?
colechristensen 6y ago
Doesn’t much news involve heavy ... collusion with the subject of or source of the story? Having it completely produced by the subject isn’t a big leap from the current situation with many publishers and reporters. There seems to be very little news which isn’t engineered to benefit one group or another. In other words real, objective, and independent reporting seems to be quite rare, and the mistaken expectation that most news is exactly that seems to be very common.
- nardi 6y ago
  This is a pretty cynical take. I think most (not all, but most) news organizations are trying to produce ethical, truthful news free of bias and conflicts of interest.
  - ponker 6y ago
    Yes, but given their economics, they are always happy to find most of the work already done for them.
  - colechristensen 6y ago
    Cynical – I don't like the adjective, turning a school of philosophy poorly understood into a generic term for being overly negative implying that negativity comes from ignorance... My point being, I'm not just guessing. Seeing the sausage being made a few times is enlightening. Then the questions about what motivations the reporter and source had making up every story you read become obvious and pervasive and "truth" "relevance" and "ethics" just don't seem to be at the top. Not that those things are completely ignored, just not at the top for everyone involved just looking out for their best interests. You don't have to be wildly corrupt for everybody to have each others best interests as their own best interests and what you get is mostly useless news consisting of people cheerleading for each other and some cause which isn't anywhere near that set of ideals.
    - mycall 6y ago
      What books or literature do you suggest to learn more about making these sausages?
koiz 6y ago
The true fake news

by hbosch 6y ago

hbosch 6y ago

And some links for anyone who wants to see more about these topics... Sinclair Broadcasting owns local stations, most likely at least one near you: http://sbgi.net/tv-stations/ http://sbgi.net/tv-stations/ Scripps I believe is a bit smaller, but also owns a lot of local stations: https://scripps.com/our-brands/local-media/ https://scripps.com/our-brands/local-media/ So if Sinclair and Scripps both run the same newswire story, for instance, that is a country full of people getting it through their local -- often "most trusted" -- news station. A lot of stations get the "final say" on what does and doesn't run, but sometimes they do not. Wikipedia entry for "Video news release": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_news_release https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_news_release Wikipedia entry for "Satellite media tour": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_media_tour https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_media_tour And finally: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_literacy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_literacy

zouhair 6y ago
A video about Sinclair from Last Week Tonight With John Oliver[0] [0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvtNyOzGogc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvtNyOzGogc
Cthulhu_ 6y ago
Yup; don't ever believe any news outlets is independent, they are often owned by a single entity. In the UK for example, most media is owned by News Corp., aka Rupert Murdoch. They have the power to change the narrative and public opinion, and with that, sway elections in their favor. I feel like politics nowadays is not so much a fight between politicians, but between corporations with conflicting interests and the handful of people at the top behind them, and the parties paying them (including foreign powers).
- Angostura 6y ago
  > most media is owned by News Corp This I'm afraid isn't true, though it may feel like it. None of the free-to-air TV channels are owned by News Corp, which remains the purview of BBC and ITV in the main. It has minimal investment in radio stations. It has The Sun, The Times and Sunday Times. It used to have the News of the World. It doesn't have the Mail, Express, Independent, Guardian, Mirror etc.
  - nca-peripherals 6y ago
    In terms of revenue globally, the top five are: AT&T, Comcast, Disney, ViacomCBS, and Fox. The are mainstream media oligopolies in most countries these days, but the beauty of the internet is that independent journalists and voices who have been shut-out and banned from the corporate-establishment fold like Ralph Nader and Chris Hedges can still find tiny soap-boxes to speak truth to power since almost no one else is doing it. Then there's people like Jimmy Dore who will never get taken seriously by the establishment because he doesn't have the wealth, pedigree, or entitled rich-dbag attitude to be let into their club. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentration_of_media_ownership#Top_Five https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentration_of_media_ownersh...
- nca-peripherals 6y ago
  Competing brands of hegemonic, despotic, inverted totalitarian feudal lords vying for the Iron Throne. Bezos may ultimately be the first trillionaire as Tim Cook has clearly ran out of gas and is piloting a doomed A380 dinosaur into the drink. Ultimately, I think the first trillionaire will probably be Chinese because of China's rapid and potentially-large and long-lasting ascendancy. Ultimately, it is and always will be a powerful few who have too much against the many who have too little.

_bxg1 6y ago

But online there are legal requirements around marking ads as ads. Is there no such law for televised news?

colejohnson66 6y ago
The FCC’s advertising disclosure rules apply to every form of broadcast media.
AnthonyMouse 6y ago
Ah, but what's the definition of advertising? Probably requires the station to get paid, right? So what happens if the station airs the segment the company produced for free because it lets them be lazy and not hire as many reporters to fill their airtime? It actually becomes a tough line to draw, because a lot of huge conglomerates own media organizations. If you carry a coronavirus story produced by ABC, do you have to regard it as advertising because ABC is owned by Disney and the virus severely impacts their theme parks?

colechristensen 6y ago

Doesn’t much news involve heavy ... collusion with the subject of or source of the story? Having it completely produced by the subject isn’t a big leap from the current situation with many publishers and reporters. There seems to be very little news which isn’t engineered to benefit one group or another. In other words real, objective, and independent reporting seems to be quite rare, and the mistaken expectation that most news is exactly that seems to be very common.

nardi 6y ago
This is a pretty cynical take. I think most (not all, but most) news organizations are trying to produce ethical, truthful news free of bias and conflicts of interest.
- ponker 6y ago
  Yes, but given their economics, they are always happy to find most of the work already done for them.
- colechristensen 6y ago
  Cynical – I don't like the adjective, turning a school of philosophy poorly understood into a generic term for being overly negative implying that negativity comes from ignorance... My point being, I'm not just guessing. Seeing the sausage being made a few times is enlightening. Then the questions about what motivations the reporter and source had making up every story you read become obvious and pervasive and "truth" "relevance" and "ethics" just don't seem to be at the top. Not that those things are completely ignored, just not at the top for everyone involved just looking out for their best interests. You don't have to be wildly corrupt for everybody to have each others best interests as their own best interests and what you get is mostly useless news consisting of people cheerleading for each other and some cause which isn't anywhere near that set of ideals.
  - mycall 6y ago
    What books or literature do you suggest to learn more about making these sausages?

koiz 6y ago

The true fake news