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News propaganda is covert propaganda packaged as credible news without transparency as to source and motivation. The lack of transparency is critical to distinguishing news propaganda from traditional press releases and video news releases.
As with any propaganda, news propaganda may be spread for purposes including political or ideological reasons, partisan agenda, religious motivation, and commercial motivation. In wartime, propaganda can be motivated by national security reasons.
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The British Satellite News web site claims to be "a free television news and features service", but is provided by World Television, a company that "provides rich communications solutions to corporations, non-profit organisations and governmental institutions." BSN is entirely funded by the UK Foreign Office, which spent £340m on propaganda activities in the UK alone in 2001. [1] [2] The Foreign Office is also the primary funder of the BBC World Service, but as part of the BBC it has complete editorial and managerial independence.
In the United States, according to a report by The New York Times David Barstow, the George W. Bush administration has been increasingly criticized for the aggressive use of a tool typical of public relations: previously prepared, ready-to-serve news that big corporations regularly distribute to TV stations in order to sell products or services[citation needed]. What is referred to by the report as propaganda is usually distributed through the use of a Video news release (or VNR).
A New York Times editorial (March 16, 2005) entitled "And now, the counterfeit news" affirms that at least 20 U.S. federal agencies, like the Department of Defense and the U.S. Census Bureau, produced and distributed hundreds of TV news reports since 2001 that were aired as if they were produced by the media. The same report says that this practice was also utilized by the Clinton Administration. Another report [3] details the use of this practice by the United States Department of Agriculture.