All the 'News' That's Fit to Charge $19,000 For

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http://www.cjrdaily.org/behind_the_news/all_the_news_thats_fit_to_char.php

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The stories about the prevalence of "fake news" just keep coming, and now it looks like CNN has been fingered by the Buffalo News as a news organization that runs paid content dressed up to look like an actual news report.


The News' Thomas J. Dolan reported yesterday that a Buffalo-area company -- the Amherst Industrial Development Agency (IDA) -- paid a Florida production company a "licensing fee" of $19,000 in order to be featured in a "Pulse on America" segment scheduled to be aired on CNN's Headline News network in October.

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The production company that put the piece on IDA together, the Platinum Television Group, describes itself on its Web site as helping "companies from around the world gain exposure via nationwide broadcast television, cable and satellite distribution systems."


Now, there's nothing wrong with an outside production group providing content to a news organization, but what is wrong with this picture is that Platinum Television Group is producing friendly pieces, for which it collects a fee, for CNN, without CNN ever acknowledging that it's running what in effect is an infomercial for a particular company. (CJR Daily called CNN for comment, but after being put on hold for 20 minutes, decided to forget it.)