KGO-TV, an ABC affiliate in San Francisco, was one of 46 stations in 22 states cited for improperly including video news releases, or VNRs, into news stories, according to a report released Tuesday by two watchdog groups Center for Media and Democracy and Free Press. Tuesday's report was a follow-up to an April study by the same organizations that found that 77 stations nationally -- including CBS 5-TV (KPIX) in San Francisco -- had improperly used VNRs. Representatives of both stations acknowledged erroneously using them and called them isolated incidents.

A VNR is a prepackaged segment that looks and sounds like journalistically reported information but is produced by either a public relations firm or a government body with a vested interest in the product or service being described.

While media advocates say including prepackaged material may not seem as serious when a TV news reporter is doing a fluffy feature piece on what kind of lipstick to wear, the implications could be more dire if the journalist broadcasts corporately produced information -- without critical examination or identification -- when reporting on a new treatment for liver cancer.

Tuesday's six-month investigation included a story aired by a TV station in Missouri that questioned global warming and was largely based on a VNR created by oil industry lobbyists. The station didn't identify the source of the material.

The Federal Communications Act requires broadcasters to inform their audience "that such matter is sponsored, paid for or furnished, either in whole or in part; and by whom or on whose behalf such consideration was supplied."

Failure to identify the source of a VNR is also an ethical violation. The industry's Radio-Television News Directors Association guidelines on VNR usage says: "news managers and producers should clearly disclose the origin of information and label all material provided by corporate or other non-editorial sources."

In April's report, the study found that one-third of the time, "stations aired fake news stories in their entirety as their own reporting," according to the Center for Media and Democracy.

"No wonder the public is having a hard time distinguishing between news and propaganda," Federal Communications Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said Tuesday in response to the findings.

He was supported by fellow commissioner Michael Copps. "Americans have a legal right to know that what appears to be independent news reports are actually bought and paid for by a private corporation," Copps said.

Adelstein expressed frustration that stations haven't been cowed by the FCC investigation into VNR usage begun in August and called for the federal agency to investigate the new allegations. The agency sent letters of inquiry to the 77 stations mentioned in the April report. Still, 10 of those stations under investigation have used VNRs in the past six months, according to Tuesday's report.

Last month, the Radio-Television News Directors Association asked the FCC to halt its investigation into VNR usage, saying it had created a "chilling effect" for stations. Because many stations had curtailed using the prepackaged pieces, "viewers have lost access to video that might explain or illustrate the promises of a newly released life-altering drug, or the potentially fatal dangers posed by a common food," according to a letter the association filed with the agency.

The industry association also criticized the April watchdog study, saying that the number of VNR stories cited without disclosure was "hardly relevant" given that more than 1 million local news stories aired over that period.

Among the incidents cited in Tuesday's report was a consumer news story about rental cars that aired on San Francisco's KGO-TV in June. The story included material from a VNR produced for Allstate Insurance without identification.

KGO News director Kevin Keeshan said Tuesday that "this was a clear violation of our policy on VNR usage" and that the segment producer involved was "disciplined." The station has since changed its policy on VNR usage, now requiring the approval of at least an executive producer at the station before airing properly identified material from a VNR.

CBS 5-TV was cited in the April report for a January news story it broadcast about the first inhalable insulin treatment approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The report found that half of the story was pulled from a VNR created for the drug's maker, Pfizer.

CBS 5-TV vice president and news director Dan Rosenheim said that "this was a legitimate news story," but that the station failed to attribute the material used to a VNR, which "was a departure from our policy." While declining to say if the employees involved were disciplined, he said the matter was addressed internally.

Both TV news industry standards and local news directors say there are instances where properly identified VNRs can be ethically used without compromising the news-gathering process. If a station is airing a story about a new drug and needs footage of the production facility and can't get it on deadline, a VNR could be useful, Rosenheim said.

Neither news director thought inappropriate VNR usage is a widespread problem. Given all the national material it receives from ABC News and because it is an affiliate of CNN, KGO-TV's Keeshan said, "we have way more material than we can possibly put on television every day."

©2006 San Francisco Chronicle

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