GINA LUBRANO READERS REPRESENTATIVE
Faux news threatens media credibility

March 28, 2005

It is a sad day for journalism when rogue reporters make up news, but now we are told the government, including members of the Bush administration and even California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, are guilty of attempts to pass off promotional videos as news.

Don't forget Jeff Gannon, whose real name is James Dale Guckert, a shill for the Republicans who passed himself off as a reporter until he was outed by bloggers. Then, there are pundits who were paid to promote administration programs while masking what they wrote as their own opinions.

Where will it end? Reporters who fabricate and plagiarize are ejected (or resign) when their actions come to light. Remember deposed journalists Jayson Blair, a fledgling reporter at The New York Times, and Jack Kelley, a seasoned reporter at USA Today? Their careers hit major bumps when editors learned that they fabricated and passed off other people's work as their own.

Journalists still smart from the damage caused by these two and others like them. They did not just hurt themselves and their newspapers with their deceptions; they damaged news media credibility in general.

The latest faux journalism is perhaps even more damaging than self-aggrandizing reporters. It represents an effort by government officials to use the news media to sway public opinion in the guise of news and legitimate opinion and, in the process, discredit legitimate journalism. It underlines the responsibility those in the news media have to the public not to lose sight of their watchdog role and to report fully and independently.

It's reprehensible that talk-show host and columnist Armstrong Williams and other syndicated columnists were paid (with taxpayers' money) to promote Bush administration programs. In Williams' case, he was paid $241,000 to hype the No Child Left Behind Act. The practice was later disavowed by President Bush.

It is in violation of everything that journalists hold dear that phony news clips produced by federal agencies were passed off by television stations as news reports. It doesn't matter whether laws were broken. Is there any question the practice is wrong?

The video clips, including one produced by the Schwarzenegger administration to promote eliminating a mandatory lunch break for hourly workers, are dangerous because they glowingly tell only one side of the story. They are promotional pieces rather than legitimate news. In this case, it is up to television stations to do their own work and show both sides of an issue. Those who don't are an embarrassment to honest journalism.

Newspapers get reams of news releases from groups or organizations that are promoting a cause or a product. If editors think something being hyped in a news release is worth a story, they will assign reporters to fully report the story, and that means getting both sides. It is what is owed the public. We in the news media had better not lose sight that our watchdog role is one of our primary reasons for being.

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