BOB GARFIELD: From WNYC in New York, this is NPR's On the Media. I'm Bob Garfield.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: And I'm Brooke Gladstone. This week, the General Accounting Office re-opened its investigation into a series of ads produced by the Department of Health and Human Services. The ads at issue purport to inform seniors about the new Medicare law. Democrats last month charged that the TV spots were misleading and a mis-use of taxpayer money, offering more advocacy than education, as Senator Edward Kennedy told us:

EDWARD KENNEDY: Clearly, it's improper, and clearly it's outrageous to use Medicare beneficiaries' money for campaign sloganing, and that's what this is all about.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:But the GAO determined that though it, quote, noted several worthy omissions in HHS's materials, "including the cost of some services to seniors," the ads were still legal. Now the spotlight has moved from the ads to White House-sponsored video news releases, or VNRs. In a moment, you'll hear more about those dirty little secrets of journalism, but for now, suffice it to say that such spots look like news and sound like news, but they are not news. [CLIP OF HHS VNR]

KAREN RYAN: Medicare officials emphasize that no one will be forced to sign up for any of the new benefits.

MAN: ...this -- completely voluntary. Seniors'll be able to partake of the new Medicare system or the old Medicare system.

KAREN RYAN: The new law, say officials, simply offers people with Medicare ways to make their health coverage more affordable. In Washington, I'm Karen Ryan, reporting.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:Karen Ryan describes herself as a PR professional, and she was reading from a script approved by HHS. It may have been education, as the government claims, or it may have been propaganda as many Democrats contend, but it wasn't journalism. Still, viewers of the roughly 40 stations that ran the spot can be forgiven for thinking it was. Several TV news directors thought so too, among them Lynn Brooks, who also anchors the news at KVUA in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Last month, she pulled and broadcast the Medicare VNR from the package of stories they get daily from CNN news source.

LYNN BROOKS: Basically, you look at the news source feed just like you would look down the Associated Press wire -- you'll get a subject line that may say Medicare, or it'll say Sports Highlights. It's just a big, long listing of all the stories that come down from CNN that day. If you're a producer, and you're looking at the script of that story, there's nothing really that tells you that, you know, this is a video news release; it just looks like a reporter package.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:She says she receives VNRs every day from dozens of companies hawking their wares, and regarding them as basically video press releases, she throws them in the trash. Obviously, not so with the daily news feed.

LYNN BROOKS: We just take them at face value, assuming that the folks on the other end have done their legwork to make sure that, that it's balanced and that it's legitimate. So when we get a video news release from our friends over at CNN, it just catches you off guard, and it's unfortunate.

MATT FURMAN: These materials are clearly marked VNRs in three highly-visible places.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: CNN spokesman Matt Furman can't understand the confusion.

MATT FURMAN: You cannot read this script without noticing that what you're reading is a video news release.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Meanwhile, HHS says such ads and VNRs have been used by several administrations, Democratic and Republican. In the last several years, they've addressed everything from Head Start to women's soccer to body sores. Here's a clip from a 1999 Clinton era VNR about -- Medicare, specifically a reform bill that stressed preventative care.

LAVELLE BRIGHAM: Studies show that preventive medicine can help reduce costly hospital bills and surgery and allow seniors to enjoy longer, healthier lives. Lavelle Brigham, reporting.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:But just because it's a bipartisan practice doesn't mean it's not mischief, especially in an election year when arguments over Medicare continue to dominate the headlines. On Thursday, twenty journalism organizations representing more than 25,000 journalists called on all news organizations to preserve their independence by avoiding the use of such VNRs. Andrew Holtz, president of the Association of Health Care Journalists, also takes the government to task.

ANDREW HOLTZ: Why should a public agency produce something that could be misused. What's the purpose of producing a finished, edited news report, and I hold public servants to a higher standard than I would a private business. I expect them to look out for what's in the larger public interest and refrain from doing things in a PR sense that possibly would mislead or confuse the public.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:But ultimately it's up to news organizations to not confuse the public, and usually they know very well when they've received a VNR as opposed to real news -- and they still use them. Last year, Garfield laid bare the awful truth about the evening news. [MUSIC]

copyright 2004 WNYC Radio