Government & private VNRs

I've been thinking about (and talking about) VNRs, or Video News Releases, and I meant to tackle this in more depth in my blog. I haven't had time, but I thought I'd at least get up some links relating to the practice and its dodgy relationship with Public Relations. The most recent NPR piece is from Mike Pesca on "Day to Day." Here is a longer piece on the practice by David Folkenflik for NPR's "All Things Considered." (And here is the Wikipedia entry on news releases and VNRs.)