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For more than 40 minutes, panicked members of the public called the disaster helpline that accompanied the announcement and word of the catastrophe flashed around Twitter and other social networks. Then the SNCF realised that an internal disaster exercise had reached the public site.
The announcement, which appeared at 11am, said that normal service on the site had been interrupted because of a dramatic event.
"An explosion of unknown origin occurred today at about 8am on TGV [high-speed train] 1234 near Macon," it said. "The first estimates from the emergency services report 102 deaths and 380 injured. All victims have been evacuated to hospitals at Mâcon... The emergency services are still on the scene, along with an emergency medical-psychological unit. Rail traffic has been halted in the region."
Imedi TV introduced the report as an "imitation of possible events," but the warning was lost on many viewers as mobile phone networks crashed and residents of Tbilisi rushed into the streets.
january 13, 2000: real-time video manipulation technology could be abused, says cbs news chief from history commons: Following the publication of a front-page article in the New York Times on the use of fake, digitally-created images in some CBS programs like “The Early Show”, CBS executives call a press conference to defend and explain the practice. While the technology has been used in sports broadcasting for several years now (see 1999 and After), many are troubled by its use in news programs. CBS Television used the technology developed by Princeton Video Image to superimpose a digitally created CBS logo to block out an NBC-sponsored sign in Times Square during its news coverage of New Year’s Eve celebrations. Dan Rather, the CBS anchor, calls that “a mistake”. “At the very least we should have pointed out to viewers that we were doing it.” Both NBC and ABC told the New York Times that they had not used the technology in their news broadcasting. But CBS defends the practice. “Anytime there’s an NBC logo up on our network we’ll block it again”, says Leslie Moonves, the president of CBS Television. Andrew Heyward, the president of the news division, acknowledges the potential for abuse or deception: “He said that he understood the argument against the use of the technology—which is widely employed in sports and some entertainment shows—on news programs. The danger is ‘that it looks too real and therefore it’s wrong or potentially wrong,’ he said. ‘I certainly agree it’s potentially subject to abuse.’ He noted that advances in computer-generated techniques had made things like missiles hitting Baghdad and airplanes crashing look so real that it was incumbent on networks to underscore that these were not real images. ‘We’re not sitting here rubbing our hands, saying how can we use this again,’ Mr. Heyward said. ‘We are not in the deception business. We’re in the reality business; we’re in the accuracy business. To the extent that this technology interferes with that core belief we’re not going to do it. We will absolutely take seriously the use of this tool.’”
1994: US air force launches top-secret ‘holographic projector’ research program from history commons: According to a 1999 Washington Post website report, the US Air Force starts a research program this year to develop a “holographic projector” as a psychological warfare weapon. Holograms are three-dimensional images created by laser technology. The US military explored the idea of using holograms during the 1991 Gulf War to deceive the Iraqis, but did not pursue it for technical reasons. One idea was to project a hologram of Allah several hundred feet in size over Baghdad, but this would take a mirror in space more than a mile square, plus huge projectors and power sources. Additionally, there are strict Islamic proscriptions on the depiction of Allah. However, the US military did not abandon the concept. “The Gulf War hologram story might be dismissed were it not the case that [the Post] has learned that a super secret program was established in 1994 to pursue the very technology for PSYOPS [psychological operations] application. The 'Holographic Projector' is described in a classified Air Force document as a system to 'project information power from space… for special operations deception missions.'” A 1996 study commissioned by a US Air Force panel called “Air Force 2025” shows how a future “Airborne Holographic Projector” might look like. In this illustration, a virtual aircraft is created to deceive the enemy as to the size and location of attacking forces.
what jello biafra calls 'monkeywrenching the new world order'...
from common dreams: The US defence department yesterday declared the end of the Iraq war and the immediate withdrawal of all troops, prompting an admission from Condoleezza Rice that the Bush administration knew all along that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction, according to the New York Times.
On second thought, that introductory paragraph needs a little clarification. The New York Times proper didn't report the end of the Iraq war. But a spoof 14-page "special edition" of the newspaper, circulating free on the streets of Manhattan today, did carry those items. It was printed in a form that was so high quality and technically accurate that many New Yorkers were nonplussed, backed up by an entire "New York Times" website that equally faithfully mimicked the original.
Dated July 4 2009, and boasting the front-page motto: "All the news we hope to print" in a twist on the daily's famous phrase "All the news that's fit to print", the fake paper looks forward to the day the war ends, and envisages a chain of events that would be manna from heaven for American liberals.
In one story, ExxonMobil is taken into public ownership. In another, evangelical churches, the backbone of the Bush-supporting Christian right, open the doors of their mega-churches to Iraqi refugees.
download the full pdf version of the editionhere (9.7mb PDF)
from new york times: Hidden behind that appearance of objectivity, though, is a Pentagon information apparatus that has used those analysts in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration’s wartime performance, an examination by The New York Times has found.
from msnbc: On Tuesday, FEMA held what was called a "news briefing" on the California fires, but the questions asked did not come from reporters. They were asked instead by FEMA staffers...
Apparently, the FEMA briefing was called with little lead-time and reporters didn't get there fast enough. Instead of acknowledging that reporters were not there they apparently pretended and even used the typical practice of calling a "last question."
The briefer, FEMA's Deputy Administrator Harvey Johnson, did not indicate that the questions were coming from staff who were in essence playing reporters. Six questions were asked and the phrasing and subject matter were not typical for a news briefing give and take.
Senior administration officials are looking into the matter and suggest the "intentions were good," but acknowledge that was not an appropriate "tactic."
The suggestion is that so many media questions had been coming in to FEMA and the briefing was a way to get information out. But instead of transparency, a senior FEMA official appears to have faked it.
update: update: fema faker fuckin' fired from thinkprogess: Earlier today, ThinkProgress noted that former FEMA director of external affairs John “Pat” Philbin had resigned his position, only to be rewarded with a promotion. Today, Philbin was set to become the director of public affairs for Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell. But the DNI’s office has since backed away from its offer, putting out a statement this afternoon that reads:
We can confirm that Mr. Philbin is not, nor is he scheduled to be, the director of public affairs for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
CNN reported that, as of this morning, the DNI’s office had said Philbin’s appointment was still going forward. Now, the DNI’s office has reconsidered in the wake of increasing anger about the hiring.
from raw story: Cable giant Comcast violated the law by broadcasting video news releases without identifying them as sponsored programming, the Federal Communications Commission announced today. The ruling came in response to a complaint from Free Press and the Center for Media and Democracy, a media watchdog group focusing on VNRs.
"In this Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture (NAL), we find that Comcast Corporation (Comcast), which operates an affiliated regional cable network, CN8, is apparently liable for a forfeiture in the amount of four thousand dollars ($4,000) for violating Section 76.1615 of the Commission’s rules," the FCC ruled (word doc link).
The FCC ruling continued, "This rule generally requires cable operators engaged in origination cablecasting to make sponsorship identification announcements when presenting matter in return for money, service, or other valuable consideration. We find that Comcast cablecast portions of a video news release (VNR) produced on behalf of 'Nelson’s Rescue Sleep' without also airing required sponsorship identification announcements."
"We're pleased to see the FCC is finally waking up to the issue of fake news," said Craig Aaron, communications director of Free Press. "But the fine levied against Comcast is just the tip of the tip of the iceberg. Video news releases dressed up as real news were uncovered at more than 100 stations. We hope the FCC will soon fine those stations and issue clear guidelines to end the epidemic of fake news once and for all." flashback: korporate koin
from raw story: "Does the U.S. military exaggerate stories, or alter or enhance them?" ABC's Diane Sawyer asks rhetorically in this video clip, as Congress prepares to hold hearings today on misleading information from the battlefield.
ABC senior correspondent Jake Tapper says the Pentagon "spun heroic myths," such as the ordeal of Pvt. Jessica Lynch, stories that were "too good to be true... and they were."
Sawyer speaks with Lynch, who says it bothers her how she was "used" by the military for public relations purposes. "It was important for me to come out with the truth," says Lynch. "I didn't want to be portrayed as this Rambo fighting machine when I knew that it wasn't the truth..."
from willamette week: Two local channels have been called out for Rogue-ish behavior by a national media watchdog for airing promotional videos—sometimes masked as news—during news broadcasts.
A report released last week by the Wisconsin-based nonprofit Center for Media and Democracy and Free Press listed KPTV-12 and KOIN-6 among 46 stations nationwide that the center claims use videos created by corporations for advertising purposes in their news segments.
Known as VNRs (video news releases), these clips even get passed off by some stations as their own reportage.
And that's just wrong, says Dan Price, co-author of the center's report. (To get a sense of the debate this touches off among local TV types about VNRs filling air time for small news staffs and other issues, check out oregon media insiders)
'Everyone has the right to know who's seeking to persuade them,' Price says. 'VNRs are corporate advertising in the false guise of independent, objective journalism.'
In the most egregious local example, the KPTV lifestyle show More Good Day Oregon aired a promotional clip, pitched as a news piece, about the sleep aid Rescue Sleep. In the program's 'Need to Know' segment on Sept. 15, anchor Andy Carson told viewers that Rescue Sleep is a 'natural alternative' and has 'no side effects,' adding that 'its biggest benefit is that Jennifer Aniston takes it...so it must be good.'
What Carson didn't mention was that the clip was a VNR made by a production company for Rescue Sleep—or that the spray, which is squirted on the tongue, contains 27 percent alcohol (no wonder it helps you sleep).
KPTV did not return calls seeking comment. (The clip can be seen here.)
Another VNR turned up on KOIN during a piece about identity theft and computers early last month on a 5 am newscast. (The clip can be seen here.)
While the story was reported by anchor Lynn Huston, part of the segment came from a VNR called a 'New Type of Kidnapping,' made by security software company Computer Associates.
Although the software is unmentioned in the piece, Price says the 'report' is still ethically murky.
'In these video news releases, it's still a story being told by people with motivated interests,' Price says. 'None of these VNRs are objective—they're telling a one-sided story.'
Huston and news director Jeff Alan say they didn't know the clip was a VNR when they got it from Pathfire, a video distribution company operated by CNN. Pathfire carries both actual news bits as well as VNRs. While most VNR videos are labeled, this clip, they say, was not.
Nonetheless, Alan defends their use of the VNR footage.
'We merely used a couple of pieces of video and a sound bite from a victim of computer identity theft,' Alan says. 'We didn't use anything to do with the commercial aspect of it.'
He adds that the real problem isn't TV stations, but the companies who create VNRs and try to make them look like credible news clips.
'There are really tricky ways these companies find to get their stuff on the air,' says Alan. 'We have to be detectives half the time.'
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Welcome to New World Next Week - the video series from Corbett Report and Media Monarchy that covers some of the most important developments in open source intelligence news. This week: 
Visit NewWorldNextWeek.com to get previous episodes in various formats to download, burn and share. And as always, stay up-to-date by subscribing to the feeds from Corbett Report here and Media Monarchy here. Thank you.
