If a morning newscast on WILX-TV Channel 10 in Lansing left viewers craving Bisquick pancakes, it might not have been an accident.
The video, run in honor of National Pancake Week on the station's morning broadcast, was one of two video news releases, or VNRs, produced by Medialink Worldwide Inc., a company that, among other things, is contracted by corporations to produce video press releases. The other video run by WILX featured the General Motors-owned Renaissance Center and its role in revitalizing Detroit's downtown.
The pancake spot was paid for by none other than General Mills pancake products, makers of Bisquick, according to a report released by the Center for Media and Democracy, a Wisconsin-based media watchdog group.
WILX ran the pancake story "probably because it was available," News Director Kevin Ragan said.
"I was under the impression that those were pieces that were given to us under one of our news feeds," Ragan said. "I wasn't aware of its source."
Ragan said the producer who chose to air the VNRs is on vacation.
According to the report, WILX was one of 77 television stations around the country that ran VNRs as part of their news programs in the past 10 months.
None of the news broadcasts featured in the center's report identified the VNRs' corporate sponsor.
For each story, a WILX anchor introduced the piece and attributed the reporter. But the reporters work for Medialink, and the broadcast did not point this out. WILX also added its own logo and graphic to the videos.
Representatives from Medialink, General Mills and the Center for Media and Democracy were not available for comment in this story.
News stations "run (VNRs) as news that they themselves produced without telling their viewers that they're getting something that is effectively an advertisement," said Ben Scott, policy director for Free Press, a national media reform organization.
The pancake story was produced by Medialink for General Mills and included a representative from Bisquick talking about one of its products.
"It is troubling that material is used when you're not familiar with the source," said Ed Esposito, a regional representative on the Radio-Television News Directors Association & Foundation board of directors. "In order to have any credibility with our readers and listeners and viewers, that process should be transparent."
The Renaissance Center VNR was paid for by GM and focused on the company moving its headquarters into the Renaissance Center. The newscast states the movement of "5,000 GM employees and $500 million in renovations gave Detroit's downtown a new start."
GM produces VNRs the same way it does other releases. It is made clear the company is behind the video, said Mike Meyerand, director of communications for GM. It is up to the news media to determine how to use the videos, Meyerand said.
"There is no mystery about what the media is receiving from General Motors," he said.
