Have you ever watched you local evening news and felt like the story was almost a commercial for some product? I know I have. Often times, I catch it when the local news is doing a story on some Internet scam or so-called “threat.” Often good information will be mixed in with spin that encourages people to buy some class of product, e.g. an Internet security program. Well, turns out that my local station might have been playing a video news release (VNR) by a software company. They pay the news show to air the bit, effectively inserting a small paid programming advertisement into your news broadcast.

The Center for Media and Democracy has compiled a small list of VNRs that you can watch unedited as well as how the new program aired them. Often, the station will incorporate some local or new footage with the VNR to make it seem more authentic.

It’s a pretty dishonest practice only because they don’t disclose the fact that the companies are paying for this. What’s more disheartening is that it’s not just small city or smaller regional networks doing this, but even stations in larger cities.

(via Atrios)