Churnalism School

“News is what somebody somewhere wants
to suppress; all the rest is advertising.”
-- Alfred Charles William Harmsworth, Lord Northcliffe

A new website in the UK is trying to help the public distinguish between independent journalism and reports that simply regurgitate information from publicists. Churnalism allows users to compare press releases with actual news articles to see how much they overlap. Martin Moore is the Director of the Media Standards Trust, the organization that launched the site. He explains how independent journalism is increasingly being replaced with “churnalism.”

Churning Out PR Audio Embed: WNYC's On The Media 3/5/11, Host: Bob Garfield.