• by Wayne Friedman , August 14, 2006

The Federal Communications Commission plans to send inquiry letters to TV stations asking whether they properly disclosed the source of any video news releases, according to a Reuters report.

Pushed by consumer advocacy groups, the FCC is sending out these questionnaires because of reports that TV stations have failed to tell viewers whether some of their newscasts included video segments that were not properly identified. Video news releases (VNRs) are typically produced by an organization's public relations firm to push a mostly one-sided view of a particular story.

The Free Press and the Center for Media and Democracy filed a complaint with the FCC, according to Reuters, saying that 77 stations over a 10-month period had failed to tell viewers they were using video news releases--which is in violation of FCC disclosure rules.

It wasn't just video footage that was used by TV stations. In some cases, TV reporters could be found directly reading from scripts prepared by public relations firms.