@WGRZ/@TEGNA anchor Michael Wooten @wgrzMichael this week disclosed (and denied) a potential conflict of interest arising from the fact it was revealed @pfizer executive Lidia Fonseca sits on the board of @WGRZ owner @TEGNA.
Is TEGNA advertising the vaccine?🧵
I’d like to introduce a very important point to this discussion of @WGRZ’s potential conflict of interest: advertising.
Is @WGRZ and @TEGNA advertising the COVID-19 vaccine, specifically the Pfizer vaccine, in their coverage?
PRODUCT PLACEMENT: The practice of inserting branded products into programming in exchange for fees or other considerations.
CLASSIC PLACEMENT: merely requiring a shot of the product at some point during the program.
These screenshots were taken from a recent @WGRZ report that I urge you to watch. Not only are the images used disturbing and seemingly advertise the Pfizer vaccine product, the segment itself mimics recent Pfizer advertising campaigns.
wgrz.com/article/news/h…
Images shown during the voiceover segment are both disturbing and seem to be examples of classic product placement advertising techniques:
Which leads me to my next question:
@TEGNA has reported $21.4m in revenue from EMBEDDED ADVERTISING for FY2021, and $24.8m in FY2020.
@WGRZ, are these advertising contracts publicly available?
@WGRZ, does @TEGNA use embedded advertising for the Pfizer #COVID19vaccine?
EMBEDDED ADVERTISING:
“Prescription drug product placements do not provide onsumers adequate info about drugs side effects…”
“Consumer Deception.”
“Whose interests (news) content might be serving.”
Again, why does @WGRZ COVID-19 vaccine coverage look so much like embedded advertising?
I tried to find @WGRZ coverage of vaccine side effects.
Only 1 tweet was available that I found:
Published at 1 AM on Friday, September 17, 2021.
@WGRZ why do you fail to provide coverage of vaccine side effects, only to claim they don’t exist when you do?
@WGRZ why have you not covered the recent #pfizerdocuments #Pfizerdata that shows high numbers of both SAE’s and deaths following vaccination with Pfizer’s COVID vaccine? If these reports aren’t causally linked to vaccine, please have @VerifyThis do a story on the data.
The conflict of interest between @WGRZ @TEGNA and @pfizer and the foundations funding your fact-checking trainers extends far beyond @wgrzMichael and any of your other anchor-level journalists.
Failing to disclose connection to Pfizer is an extreme lack of candor.
@WGRZ @wgrzMichael @ScottLevinTV @jwt2
I’m addressing all of you directly.
For the integrity of your station, you must notify your TV viewers of your connection to Pfizer.
Wooten may have tweeted it, but that’s insufficient.
@WGRZ staff authored article and ran TV segment.
Between:
1. @TEGNA’s link to Pfizer
2.) Hiring 501(c)3’s funded by vaccine investors to train your journalists how to counter vaccine misinformation
3.) Your segments on vaccines looking like advertisements
It’s incumbent on you as a station to disclose this information.
I’ll be expecting a complete answer to all of the above questions made publicly.
Who’s side is @WGRZ really on?
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