news they shouldn’t use

push its programs and a formernetwork reporter gained overnightnotoriety for her slick narrationand misdirecting sign-off—“InWashington, I’m Karen Ryanreporting.” Among journalists adebate broke out over whom toblame most: the government formendacious packaging or TV newsshops for lazily enabling the men-dacity. Some members of Congresssaid the Federal CommunicationsCommission should step in.

But the Center for Media andDemocracy reports that the“dominant purveyors of VNRs”are corporations. For ten months,ending in March, CMD tracked36 VNRs, which it says is about 1percent of the VNRs that arrive inTV newsrooms in a year. It saysthat all but 2 of the 49 clients thatpaid for these VNRs were corpo-rations, that 69 TV stationsbroadcast some version of them atotal of 87 times, and that in nocase was the client ever identified.

CyberGuy’s report on phishingwas the only time CMD couldidentify a VNR showing up on aChicago station. WGN simplyaired what CyberGuy offered,and news director Greg Caputosays that if CMD had bothered tocall him he’d have argued thatKnutsson played down PC-Cilinand offered useful advice. Hetold me, “When you screen thepiece you’re kind of left scratch-ing your head—what fact in thepiece isn’t true? What fact in hisstory is phony or false or fake?”

Knutsson didn’t return my e-mailor phone calls. KTLA’s news direc-tor, Jeff Wald, did. Like Caputo, he

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By Michael Miner

The doleful tale of JessicaSweedler has been toldfrom coast to coast.

Deceived by e-mail that lookedlike it came from her bank, shereplied with the personal infor-mation it requested. More than$1,000 in bogus charges thenappeared on her credit card. “Ireally felt suckered,” she said.

TV “CyberGuy” Kurt Knutssonspread Sweedler’s story lastNovember when he warned ofthe perils of phishing and toldhis viewers how to fight back.CyberGuy’s home station is theTribune Company’s KTLA in LosAngeles, and at least four otherTribune stations also carried hisreport—WPIX in New York,KWGN in Denver, WXIN inIndianapolis, and WGN inChicago. But the report wasn’tquite what it seemed.

Sweedler’s real enough—she’smarketing director for Meals onWheels in San Francisco. And sheinsists she did get taken. But bythe old-fashioned definition ofnews, CyberGuy’s report wasn’t. Itwas—and a pro like Sweedlersurely appreciates this—market-ing. Instead of digging for his ownstory, Knutsson adapted a videonews release. VNRs look so muchlike straightforward news reportsthat you probably wouldn’t knowthe difference unless someonetold you. This one had been creat-ed by D S Simon Productions forTrend Micro Software, a firm thatmakes a $50 Internet securityprogram called PC-Cilin.

Knutsson reedited the VNR,dropping the narration of “Jim

argued that CyberGuy delivered alegitimate report, making a minormistake by not mentioning where a“relatively small amount” of thepiece came from. I’d call it a rela-tively large amount, but you candecide for yourself by reading theCMD report and watching bothversions of the Sweedler VNR atwww.prwatch.org, a CMD Web site.

Wald and I agree on the prin-ciple at stake. “There are somestations that have abusedVNRs—that’s really the issue,” hesaid. “If you don’t do any journal-ism and put it up on the air as ifit’s your work, that’s a big deal tome, a real big deal.”

You might conclude that’s justabout what Knutsson did.

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News They Shouldn’t UseA watchdog catches more TV stations—including one in Chicago—using video news releases.

Lawrence” and writing his ownand briefly discussing the problemof phishing live on camera. Butwhen his report got rolling, therewasn’t much that didn’t come fromTrend Micro. Where Lawrence hadintoned that “software like PC-Cilin is your first line of defense,”Knutsson advised that “while soft-ware may help protect you, ulti-mately it all comes down to com-mon sense.” But a Trend Microsecurity guru still weighed in onways the public could protectitself, and PC-Cilin remained theone product mentioned by name.

Sweedler’s overnight fame wasn’t limited to cities where theTribune Company owns stations.According to a new survey by theCenter for Media and Democracyin Madison, Wisconsin, versionsof the VNR were carried by sta-tions in Colorado Springs,Jonesboro, Arkansas, and SaintLouis, where a reporter simplyreplaced Lawrence’s voice with hisown. In Oklahoma City a KOKHnews anchor introduced Lawrenceas if he were a KOKH reporter.

In my own quick online searchI also found Sweedler’s story post-ed on the Web site of a station incentral Florida and attributed toCyberGuy and on the Web site ofa station in South Bend, Indianaand attributed to a prizewinninglocal reporter. This reporter’sintegrity shone through: all men-tions of PC-Cilin and Trend Microhad been deleted.

No one had heard of VNRs untila couple years ago, when it cameout that the Bush administrationwas making heavy use of them to

hottype@chicagoreader.comwww.chicagoreader.com/hottype

CHICAGO READER | APRIL 28, 2006 | SECTION ONE 5

Comments, questions? Take it up with Cecil on the Straight Dope Message Board, www.straightdope.com, or write him at the Chicago Reader, 11 E. Illinois, Chicago 60611. Cecil’s most recent compendium of knowledge, Triumph of the Straight Dope, is available at bookstores everywhere.

The Straight Dope®by Cecil Adams

Y ou’re thinking I’m going to say Idid all my research for this onthe Internet. Well, not all. I havea buddy with a long pinkie nail

and a high embarrassment threshold, so Icalled up and asked. However, let’s face it:for topics resistant to conventional lines ofinquiry, the Internet is hard to beat. Sometheories, many lifted from the StraightDope Message Board, this column’s ownlittle window into the demimonde:a Organic coke spoon. As if we needed toask.a Booger scoop and earwax excavator.Gross, yes, but sure keeps that coke fromfalling off.a In the old days in China, longfingernails were a sign you were rich anddidn’t do manual labor. Now they grow outthe pinkie as a sign of culture, breeding,and wealth. No doubt there’s some truth tothis. A bit of browsing turns up photos ofornate fingernail protectors worn by ladiesof the imperial Chinese court. Bizarrethough such talons may seem to some, onecould argue that as an indicator of culture,breeding, and wealth they beat having tobuy a Jaguar and read Proust.a My Chinese students (all about 18 to22) told me the nails are long so the littlefinger reaches past the last knuckle jointon the ring finger. If it does, you are richand intelligent! Maybe, but if I’m AnnaNicole Smith trying to size up aprospective soul mate, I’m going to needto see more than a pinkie nail.a My 76-year-old uncle keeps one pinkienail long and sharpened to openenvelopes.a A sharpened, hardened nail is adangerous weapon and can be a sign ofprison time. Or of a man who opens a lotof envelopes.a I thought it was a sign one was a pimp.a My friend has one and always hints it isfor sexual purposes. I really hope theydon’t involve earwax.a Great for opening shrink-wrap. Ha! Ibet that’s what Mr. Sexual Purposes doeswith it.a General scratching and ear cleaning.The longer nail also works well whentrying to pick up something lying flat on atable, like a coin. Definitely seeing acommon thread here. My assistant

Bibliophage points to the French wordauriculaire, meaning pinkie finger, ofwhich Larousse remarks, “ainsi nomméparce que sa petitesse lui permet des’introduire dans l’oreille” (“so namedbecause its small size allows it to beintroduced into the ear”).a My pinkie finger on both my hands is abit longer than the other nails. I use themfor playing the tarifs, or sympatheticstrings of the sitar, in different fashions. Iuse the right one for playing a quick scaledown the sympathetic strings between different movements of the Hindustaniclassical music I usually play. The left one Iuse for striking the tarifs as accents during the slow first movement, or alap.I keep my right index nail a little long sothat I can pluck each string individually(they are hard to reach) for tuning. And asa bonus, people think you’re a pimp.a The cashier at Subway had one nailgrown long. I asked him why and he saidhe had a running competition with one ofhis friends as to who had the longest

fingernail. This, on so many levels, is why Inever eat at Subway.a A Google search produced someinteresting ones: that Picasso kept a longlittle fingernail for mixing paints, and thatTurkish men commonly keep such a nailfor opening cigarette wrappers.a I am the only man I know that has 32different colors of nail varnish, as I haveone two-inch-long pinkie nail that I paintup like the Colombian flag. Whatever yousay, partner. However, the Colombian flagonly has three colors.a Don’t cut my nails, pinkies only onesthat don’t break off. My friend’s answer.Give him credit for honesty.a On a Beijing subway I saw a guy with along pinkie nail clean his nose and hisears with it. Right after he wiped his nailon the handrail, someone grabbed it.Wonderful place, Beijing subways. OK, Ithink we got it. Theory, at least in someparts of Asia: sign of culture, breeding,and wealth. Practice, regardless of locale:booger scoop.

For decades I’ve wondered, and, assuming the answer would behighly personal, have failed to ask: what’s the deal with the extra-long pinkie fingernail on people from the Orient (Middle East,India, Southeast Asia)? —Jim Mundy, Pawhuska, Oklahoma

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The First StepIs AdmittingYou Have aProblem Drawing lines is so 20th century.On April 13 Charlie Rose airedan interview with the CEOs ofVerizon and Google.

The conversation knockedaround some interesting ideas onnew technology, and excerptsshowed up in the April 24 NewYorker—in a four-page ad forLexus. The interview was one offour cooked up by Lexus, byConde Nast Media Group, whichpublishes the New Yorker, and byRose’s home station, WNET inNew York, for a series they’recalling “Road to Innovation.” Theseries “represents excellence ininnovation,” says Lexus’s vicepresident for marketing in anannouncement I found onlinethat hails Conde Nast as a com-pany “known for its leadership inintegrated marketing opportuni-ties.” As they say about a lot ofthings these days, the “Road toInnovation” is what it is.

VNRs are what they are. D SSimon Productions boasts of itsprowess in creating VNRs thatdeliver. “Our strategy,” its Web siteexplains, “is to involve news deci-sion-makers in the VNR processbefore scripts are written or anyproduction dollars are spent.”VNRs are expensive—why wastetime and money producing onenobody wants? As it is, presidentDoug Simon told me, “if you getone in 30 or 40 stations to use aVNR it’s a success.” Simondeclares VNRs the “most accurate”of PR tools. “Do you want to knowwhy? Because of their transparen-cy. If I’m putting out a tape thathas the name of the company that

funds it it’s got to be accurate orI’m going to be ripped.”

Transparency—the lack of it—iswhat CMD is complaining about.The D S Simon Web site assuresvisitors that “our strong ethicalstance on industry issues hasenhanced our reputation with themedia and clients.” Simon callshimself a “disclosure hawk.”

Publicists have their own pro-fessional organization, the PublicRelations Society of America(PRSA), and it has a code ofethics—not so exacting as the onewritten by the Society ofProfessional Journalists (SPJ), butstill a code. And provisions suchas “We adhere to the highest stan-dards of accuracy and truth inadvancing the interests of thosewe represent and in communicat-ing with the public” and pledgessuch as to “work constantly tostrengthen the public’s trust in theprofession” strike some membersas compromised by VNRs.

“VNRs are an ethical, credible,and viable PR tool,” says MichaelCherenson, chair of the PRSA’sadvocacy advisory board. “Thekey is, there needs to be full dis-closure. It’s incumbent upon thesource of information, and alsoit’s the responsibility of themedia, the TV stations, to fullydisclose to the audience thesource of information.”

In March last year PRSA calleda VNR “summit” and invited theSPJ. Kevin Smith, a journalismprofessor who chaired SPJ’s ethicscommittee in the mid-90s, decid-ed to go. “If PR people are comingto journalists and saying, ‘We’dlike to sit down with you and talkabout ethics,’ that’s an invitationwe can’t pass up,” he told me. Hediscovered “commonalities” at thesummit, and afterward he pro-posed that SPJ stage a panel dis-cussion on VNRs at its 2005national convention in Las Vegascontinued on page 6

Sussman’s a former newspaperreporter who helped write SPJ’scode of ethics. “There’s no reasonto write a video news releaseunless you expect it to be pickedup on the air,” he says. “You cangive the same information andmuch more in a printed pressrelease.” Sussman’s trying to goadSPJ’s ethics committee into mak-ing a strong statement againstVNRs, and he’ll probably succeed.He recently told the other mem-bers of the committee by e-mail tocheck out CMD’s “damningreport,” and committee memberLouis Hodges, a college professor,responded by calling VNRs “thismost serious threat to journalismand, therefore, to democracy.”

Sussman parts company withthe CMD on one specific. The

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Web site where the CMD reportis laid out urges the public to “tellthe Federal CommunicationsCommission that fake news muststop.” Sussman doesn’t want theFCC anywhere near the VNRdebate. “It’s a journalism ethicsissue,” he says. “It’s not a govern-ment ethics issue.” Governmentisn’t journalism’s big brother.

Smith thinks SPJ is missing anopportunity by stiffing the flacks.“For a very long time we’vepreached being proactive in thepursuit of our ethics,” he tells me.“That means educating peopleahead of time to the point wherethey’re not making ethical mis-takes. This committee wants tosend out a press release and pub-licly chastise TV stations forusing these VNRs. My point is,

why don’t we sit down with PRpeople and stop the supply ofVNRs so we’re not standing herecalling people out on the carpet?”

Journalists and publicists knowhow to hold hands. The same jour-nalism schools send both out intothe world. Many publicists are for-mer journalists who crossed overto the dark side for the money.When the Oklahoma chapter ofSPJ awards its annual journalismprizes, three of them are for publicrelations. (Is it a coincidence thatthe CMD report identified KOKHin Oklahoma City as the “toprepeat offender” for airing six ofthe VNRs tracked by CMD, five ofthem “in their entirety,” each timewith the original narration?)

Those SPJ prizes honoring PR inOklahoma are an anomaly, and

continued from page 5

and invite PRSA to participate.That didn’t happen. Smith ran

up against members of the SPJethics committee who don’t wantto touch PRSA with a ten-footpole. “I didn’t see the point of it,”says committee member PeterSussman. “We have two entirelydifferent roles. They’re trying tosell us something. We’re trying toget accurate news reports. In nosense is it a common cause orcommon pursuit.” Committeechairman Gary Hill, an investiga-tive TV reporter in Minneapolis,told me, “We want to level ourcriticism at the bad practitionersin our field, not theirs. ‘Let themclean up their own house’ is theemerging attitude. We have a lotof work to do on our end.”

that’s a good thing. The day no dog-matist is around to insist that there’sgotta be a line, there won’t be a line.

News BiteaThe Chicago chapter of SPJ,the Headline Club, didn’t giveanyone an ethics in journalismaward this year. “We know thereare good, ethical journalists outthere,” said local ethics committeechair Casey Bukro in a HeadlineClub press release. “We’re just try-ing to find them and recognizethem.” The Headline Club didn’thave to go public with its failureto find any good, ethical journal-ists. But it did. That should takecare of next year’s award. v

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