The Truth About The News

Every night, nearly “4.6 million Canadians” (www.ctv.ca) turn to CTV to hear the news for the day. As the newscast starts, we are greeted by Lloyd Robertson, the chief anchor and senior editor for CTV News. “Robertson has been broadcasting for over 50 years and has won prestigious awards that include the order of Canada, numerous Gemini awards, and the Canada Walk of Fame” (www.ctv.ca). By now, Canadians have grown to admire and trust Lloyd Robertson and the CTV News team. We believe that the news we hear is the truth and that the goal of CTV News is to report unbiased and accurate news to the Canadian public. However, a new trend in the news business is crushing this principle. Corporate businesses and public relation firms are now creating video news releases (VNR) that are hurting the accuracy of the news we view.

Video news releases are created by corporations, public relations firms, and marketing agencies in order to promote and sell a product. Essentially, it is a news release, in the form of a video that is given to news stations. Although very effective in selling and promoting a product, video news releases are damaging to the integrity of our television news stations. In the book, Toxic Sludge is Good for You, the authors John Strauber and Sheldon Rampton effectively describe a VNR, “Video news releases are designed to be indistinguishable from genuine news, and are typically used as story segments on TV news shows without any attribution or disclaimer indicating that they are in fact subtle paid advertisements” (Stauber and Rampton 13). The following clip shows an example of a VNR:


This VNR was created for AdSpace Networks, who are the creators of SmartScreen, the product shown in the clip. The main goal of the video is to gain attention and sell the product. By throwing in some interesting facts and interviewing a few shoppers, the VNR is created to look like a news report. Television news stations use the VNR in their newscasts. The following clip shows the VNR being played by a CBS affiliate station.


In the news report, as stated in Toxic Sludge is Good For You, viewers were not told that it was in fact a paid advertisement or a VNR. If there is no disclaimer that it is a VNR, then we no longer will need television news reporters. In the example, the news station played the VNR unedited. All they did was add their own reporter’s voice in the video. Alarmingly, in some newscasts that play VNRs, the publicist that was shown in the news release was labelled as a reporter.

This example raises some alarming issues. The foundation of the news business is to relate factual news to the public. Their job is to dig deep, find out what is really happening in the world, and help expose companies, individuals, and governments who are harming the public. Without the news, companies, individuals, and the government could get away with anything. The news helps bring people to justice.

We turn to the television and newscasts every day to learn the news. Many citizens trust that the news that they watch is truthful and factual. The television is an impressive technology that has a huge impact on its viewers. Marshall McLuhan describes the television as, “the most significant of the electric media because it permeates nearly every home in the country, extending the central nervous system of every viewer as it works over and moulds the entire sensorium with the ultimate message” (www.columbia.edu). However, video news releases are causing huge damage. The state of our newscasts are changing as news reports change from hard hitting factual news to canned public relations products that are created to sell a product.

Work Cited

The Playboy Interview. March 1969. Columbia University. 23 Nov 2008.
[http://www.columbia.edu/~log2/mediablogs/McLuhanPBinterview.htm]

Stauber, John and Rampton, Sheldon. Toxic Sludge is Good For You Monroe: Common Courage Press, 1995.

Lloyd Robertson. 2008. CTV Globemedia. 23 Nov 2008. [http://www.ctv.ca/robertson]