Bomb Cam VNRs

Two years ago during the first stages of Operation Iraqi Freedom, I was having a drink in a hotel lounge with a group of young PR flacks I was training. Looking at the TV screen, I saw CNN had split its screen in two: on the right side, precision bomb camera images and other footage distributed by the Pentagon. The left side alternated between the anchor and a reporter describing the images, obviously what he heard minutes earlier in a media briefing.

I turned to the others and pointed at the screen: "Look at that. It’s about the best VNR (video news release) you’ll ever see."

The media may not think see it that way, but commented bomb cam and prepackaged military satellite images are the most successful of VNR. Consider what a VNR is. The only fundamental difference the person replaced by the media outlet is a general trained in PR instead of an actor.