(Completely unposed picture of local ranger caught in the act of relaxing after a hard day's work did not come directly from the US Forest Service)
A Senate Democrat influential on telecommunications issues has asked federal regulators to investigate whether any laws were broken by broadcasters who aired video news releases produced by the government.
Stations may have violated the law if they used the video releases without disclosing that the government was the source of the information, Sen. Daniel Inouye (news, bio, voting record), D-Hawaii, wrote in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (news - web sites).
Another cute picture that does not come from the government
The FCC (news - web sites) should "take any remedial measures necessary to prevent station owners from misleading their viewers", said Inouye, adding that any lack of disclosure also represents "a serious breach of journalistic ethics."
Inouye, ranking Democrat on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, said the FCC should also scrutinize whether stations violated prohibitions against accepting "money, service or other valuable consideration for the airing of content."
The commission will "take the letter very seriously and will look into it," FCC spokesman David Fiske said Thursday. Generally, the FCC reviews letters and complaints before determining if there should be an investigation.
The White House has defended the video releases, which are distributed to television stations across the country. The videos are frequently used without any disclosure of the government's role in their production.
AP via Yahoo News
And may I say that anything that helps to keep the FCC too busy to butt their nose into every words said on TV and radio is just fine by me.
Scroll down to read synopsis of New York Times report about prepackaged news coming from the Bush administration.
And here is a link to the
Mt. St. Helen's Volcano Cam for no particular reason. (It is not located on a government site either. All glory to Bush!)
