Fake news flourishes under the feds' noses

A look at the federal government's flimsy and fitful crackdown on news outlets and experts that fob off public relations drivel as news.

The public has gotten pitch-drunk from relentless salesmanship, on Twitter, Facebook, blogs and even their favorite sitcoms and reality shows. TV news producers have to fill airtime with staffs a fraction the size they were just a few years ago. Federal regulators speak loudly but carry a small stick -- seldom invoking regulations that let them punish television outlets that don't disclose paid promotions. A couple of public interest outfits demonstrated more than four years ago how dozens of TV stations flimflammed the public by presenting video news releases from advertisers as if they were unbiased expert testimonials, but complaints brought by the Center for Media and Democracy and Free Press, a partner public interest group, have not been resolved, at least as far as anyone knows. It is hard to tell exactly what the Federal Communications Commission has done on the matter. Eric Bash, associate bureau chief in the FCC's Enforcement Bureau, said he assumed the fail-to-disclose complaints could be pending. But rules prohibit discussing ongoing investigations. And the rules might also preclude discussing complaints that had been tossed out.

The only antidote might be bringing more attention to broadcasters who produce fake news. The audience has had its fill of this sub rosa salesman, hasn't it? Or has the news just sunk to meet our increasingly low expectations?