TV Stations Broke Law by Airing Amazon Propaganda as News, Experts Say

Recently, 11 local broadcasters were caught airing “news” segments that were actually advertisements praising Amazon’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis. Experts say the ads—which featured an Amazon public relations representative pretending to be a reporter—not only violated the law, but are a shining example of how media consolidation is slowly destroying quality local journalism. The ads were part of an Amazon press release lauding the company for its “innovation” during the COVID-19 crisis. And while some ethical reporters correctly balked at the idea of running marketing fluff as news, some stations ran the prepared segment as hard news without informing viewers they were watching an Amazon infomercial.  Not only did the local broadcasters not acknowledge that the “news” report came from Amazon, they falsely identified an Amazon PR representative as a reporter. “This practice became very common in the early 00s as consolidation drove cost-cutting which meant downsizing local newsrooms while still needing to produce the same content,” said Public Knowledge's Harold Feld. “So local stations began just running whatever companies sent them to provide enough content for their local news show.”