Healthy Skepticism Library item: 1113

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Aaron Brown Turning Pr Flack For Phoney 'Newscasts'
New York Times 2003 May 7

Full text:

“Aaron Brown of CNN, Walter Cronkite and other broadcast journalists have been hired to appear in videos resembling newscasts that are actually paid for by drug makers and other health care companies, blurring the line between journalism and advertising. … For years, local news stations, as part of their newscasts, have broadcast [video news releases (VNRs)] created by drug companies’ public relations agencies — a practice that critics equate to publishing unedited press releases. Now, production companies are expanding that marketing tactic to public television and the Web and using celebrity journalists to add to the videos’ credibility. … Critics of the news media say that the videos mislead viewers by packaging promotional material to look like news.”