So MTV, of all stations, has decided not to run ads for Supersize Me, the award-winning expose on just how bad fast food is for you. The official word is that MTV found the ads “disparaging to fast food restaurants.” You have to laugh.

As a side note, I actually went to the theater to see Supersize Me a couple of weeks ago, and what I saw of it was very good. Yes, I fell asleep in the theater, but that in no way reflects on the quality of the documentary, only on my own abilities to function normally after 10 p.m.

OK, maybe I’m just too entrenched in my industry, and this is actually a shock to the rest of the world. But the GAO has declared that DHHS violated anti-propaganda laws when it distributed a VNR (Video News Release for those non-PR types) for the new Medicare plan. When I first heard about this story about a month ago, I laughed it off, because VNRs are common practice for many organizations, whether public, private OR government. Basically, it’s a preproduced news story–similar to a written news release, except it’s designed for the evening news instead of the daily paper. And yes, just like a news release, it is presented as if it were a complete news story. It’s up to the media outlet to determine how to use the information. Sometimes, just as with news releases, the outlet will run the pre-produced package without edit or change. In this case, the VNR ran on 40 different stations around the country. Apparently, the GAO is not amused.

I think a lot of people would be shocked by the frequency with which news outlets of all types rely on PR materials for their stories. I’ll give you another example. A colleague of mine last week sent around the office a press release issued by the Kerry campaign that blasted President Bush’s record on education. (The release doesn’t appear in the “news” section, but in Kerry’s blog.) Bush was making a campaign stop and touting his education record; the Kerry Camp release gave examples and quotes to color the president’s record negatively. This negative tone bled its way into a story written by the Houston Chronicle’s Bennett Roth. Throughout the entire article, Roth presents many of the facts and research lifted from the Kerry release as though it was his original research–in fact, the Kerry campaign isn’t even quoted or mentioned until the bottom third of the article.

Is all PR propaganda? Should it all be banned–news releases, VNRs, other kinds of outreach? “Propaganda,” or promoting one’s own agenda or information, has been and will continue to be a way of life. The U.S. government is not immune (hello, war in Iraq and “embedded” journalism). I think the challenge really lies with journalists to work harder at sifting through the available information to put together fair, accurate, and multi-sided reports.