Court orders administration to stop making news-like promotions (Ahnuld) [View All]

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/business/13306209.htm

Court orders administration to stop making news-like promotions

Associated Press


SACRAMENTO - A superior court judge on Thursday ordered Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration to remove a state-produced video that was intended to look like an objective news report from a state Web site.

The ruling also said state agencies should not use public money to make similar videos in the future.

The decision by Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Lloyd Connelly came in a lawsuit filed last March by the California Nurses Association and two other unions. They claimed the production of two video news releases using state equipment and staff violated state law.

Because the videos were sent to television stations for broadcast, the unions said they amounted to little more than propaganda masquerading as news.