You know. You're watching the *news* and along comes a segment that sure seems to be hawking somebody's product... but it's not a commercial. And yet, the topic is being presented as news. If it's a VNR, the FCC has told television stations it's supposed to *label* them as VNRS (Video News Releases). Why in the world does the RTNDA have a problem with doing this? Well, it might be because some of the broadcasters in their coalition are being, um, FINED by the FCC.

Do you remember when the Surgeon General's warning appeared on cigarette packs, and everyone stopped smoking? Or when nutritional information was added to food packaging, and everyone stopped eating sugary snacks? Neither do I.

Yet lawyers and lobbyists for the Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA) insist that mounting pressure to disclose fake news "already has begun to drastically chill speech in newsrooms across the country, inhibiting broadcasters and cablecasters from fully serving their viewers."

That claim is made in RTNDA's new filing (PDF) with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The broadcasters' group is urging the FCC to stop considering fines for undisclosed video news releases (VNRs). The FCC has proposed fines totaling $20,000 against Comcast, for its cable channel CN8 having aired five VNRs