World Progress Report Promotes Program About 'Scams'; Helps Hide All The Complaints That It's A Scam

Scams

from the seo-tactics dept

We recently pointed out that the latest name for Vision Media TV appeared to be World Progress Report, and it appeared to be doing the same thing that it has been heavily criticized for by both the New York Times and NPR. Basically, it’s the same deal: they hire a semi-famous retired news person (such as Walter Cronkite, Hugh Downs and Joan Lunden) and get them to film a generic “opening” to a “report” about some organization (usually a non-profit), with the claim that such programs will appear on “public television.” Then they approach the non-profits about having a news segment done about them (heavily name dropping the current “star”) for “public television.” Then they drop the news that the organization needs to pay the “production costs,” which run anywhere from $20,000 to $30,000. A poorly edited clip is filmed, which never airs on PBS. In fact, PBS has put a warning on its website specifically calling out the company under various names and suggesting if you’re contacted by any of them to notify PBS so it can complain:

PBS wishes to clarify that it is not associated with and does not endorse, distribute programming for, review underwriting for or otherwise have any business relationship with the following production companies: American Artists Television, American Review TV, Business Break TV, Business Trends, Eco Planet TV, Event Media TV, Evergreen Entertainment, Family Television Studios, Food For Thought TV, Giving Back, Global Television Studios, Great America (with Hugh Downs), Healthy Path, Heroes of Hope, Infinity Media Group, Insights, Paradigm Media Group, Platinum Group, PMG, PMGTV, Roadshow Productions, United Media Communications Group, Vision Media, Vision Media Television, VM Television, VT Media, VT Media Productions, or World Progress Report (with Joan Lunden). PBS does not oversee the production or distribution of any programs associated with any of these companies.

If you are solicited by a production company that claims or implies an association with PBS, please notify PBS.

However, one of the oddities about World Progress Report was the fact that it was putting out a bunch of press releases promoting a program on “scams.” While at first people thought this was just irony, Paul Levy notes that it seems to have the effect of burying any Google results that call World Progress Report a “scam.”

By this new strategy, World Progress Report is loading up the search results both for its own name, and for its name combined with the word “scam,” with reports about its supposed public television programming. As a result, the information that impartial critics are calling it a scam are being buried in a welter of search results for its own self-promotion.

Filed Under: scams, world progress report
Companies: pbs, vision media tv, world progress report

Negotiators Get Close On ACTA, And Continue To Mislead About It

Copyright

from the too-bad dept

All last week, what negotiators hoped to be the “final” round of negotiations on ACTA were taking place in Tokyo. It was odd that little was heard from the negotiations, but late Friday, word came out that an agreement was still “weeks” away, as there were still substantial differences to be worked out. However, then an announcement was released suggesting that the deal is almost done as “participants in the negotiations constructively resolved nearly all substantive issues and produced a consolidated and largely finalized text of the proposed agreement.”

Of course, in typical ACTA fashion, the statement itself was blatantly dishonest as well. It tried to claim that “all stakeholders” were heard from with the following sentence:

During the week, the Government of Japan hosted informal meetings with stakeholders, including representatives from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and business leaders, and the participants in the ACTA negotiating round.

Except, as we detailed, that’s not being intellectually honest. For the past month, negotiators had been telling the NGOs that the meetings were starting September 27th. Then, they suddenly announced that it would actually start September 23rd, and the NGO meeting would be on the 24th. Except, by the time they announced it, it was too late for most representatives to get to Japan in time (many had booked flights for the following week), and the Japanese government refused to change the time of the meeting. Then, finally, when the meeting was held and only 2 or 3 NGOs were actually able to make it, it wasn’t so much a “meeting” as it was lunch — and, even then, all the ACTA negotiators sat together, leaving no room for the NGOs. If that’s how the negotiators “meet with stakeholders,” who represent consumer rights, you can get a sense of how much ACTA cares about consumers.

Either way, the negotiators are promising to release a final text shortly, in take-it-or-leave-it fashion. It would be nice if countries were smart enough to “leave it,” but I’m sure that there’s too much lobbying money on the table for most politicians to stand up for what’s right here.

Filed Under: acta, negotiations