For the people who rely on the evening news to shape their thoughts and opinions for them, it must have been nice to see that a newscaster on their local network affiliate had only nice things to say about G.W.'s new medicare law, as did the pharmacist that the piece's reporter interviewed. Great news, indeed, except that the reporter, pharmacist and everyone else in the report were actors reading lines written and produced by the White House.

Distributed to U.S. news outlets, the short "news segments" make no mention of their being a product of the Department of Health and Human Services. A DHHS spokesperson called the fake news "a common, routine practice," but critics are leaning more toward "fraud" as the best description.

Some media ethicists think the use of government-supplied news goes against the journalist's responsibilities to the public, but in times of cost-cutting and skeleton-staffed news agencies, stations see the tapes as a good way to add programming.

» Scott Saxon