You really, really can’t believe what you see on TV:

Federal authorities are actively investigating dozens of American television stations for broadcasting items produced by the Bush administration and major corporations, and passing them off as normal news. Some of the fake news segments talked up success in the war in Iraq, or promoted the companies’ products.

I hadn’t realised it was this bad in America. Maybe it’s even worse here, and that’s why we haven’t heard about it. I like to think that if the BBC can get its giant, ballooning collective panties in such a twist over phone-in voting scandals, then it must take authenticity seriously enough not to fall for such commercial hijinks. But maybe that’s what they want us to think; Blue Peter may just be the tip of the stomping fascist iceberg after all.