RTNDA Board Chmn. Bob Salsberg urged broadcasters to use ’sound’ ...

Dept. of Health & Human Services on the new Medicare law. The General Accounting Office has reopened an investigation to determine whether the video news release constituted illegal covert propaganda, a GAO spokeswoman said. It’s the first time the GAO has investigated a video news release, which is commonly used by broadcasters in local newscasts, the spokeswoman said. RTNDA’s code of ethics instructs broadcasters to clearly identify material. “It comes down to attribution and context,” Salsberg said. Since early Jan. all or parts of the mock news story had aired 53 times on 40 stations in 33 markets, said HHS spokesman Bill Pierce. Several published reports claim the “Wag the Dog” material was aired without sourcing where the video came from, and that it used someone pretending to be a Washington, D.C., reporter. Those claims prompted Sen. Kennedy (D-Mass.) to write a letter to the major networks encouraging them not to air the material. “It is critical to the credibility of an independent news media that covert government propaganda be rejected for use by news organizations,” the letter said. However, Pierce told us that the reporter used in the video is a freelance journalist in Washington and that the HHS went to “great lengths” to inform broadcasters where the material came from, including preliminary phone calls made by HHS staff to gauge broadcasters’ interest in running the video. Pierce said critics, mainly those that oppose the Medicare law, are acting as if “news directors have no free will,” he said. “This all comes down to the ethics of journalism, and the department can’t be held responsible for that,” Pierce said.