Local TV Stations Still Running "Fake News" From Businesses and Gov't

One of the more shocking revelations in recent years has been the discory that local news stations all over the country -- not just out of the way small town ones either -- regularly run "fake news" items, press releases disguised as news reports that are created and sent out by pharmaceutical companies, branches of the gov't, big auto makers, etc. It's bad enough that TV stations would use this material -- but then they use their own reporters to pretend that they did the story themselves. Well, it hasn't stopped. A major org of local news directors -- instead of decrying this practice as failing to meet the most minimal standards of ethics for their industry -- instead angrily defend it and say everyone else should butt out.