Arnold Schwarzenegger has been blasted for his use of video news releases in the latest silly "fake news" flap. Jim Sanders of the Sacramento Bee has written a pretty balanced analysis of the dispute. Excerpts:

When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration crafted a video news release touting proposed changes to meal-break rules as a way to "eliminate confusion" and "create a better working environment," it prompted cries of political outrage and a lawsuit.

Meanwhile, legislators have released paper news releases trumpeting their own views on hundreds of issues... Both kinds of press releases are aimed at media outlets and neither presents opposing views, but only the Schwarzenegger administration's form of public relations has come under fire.

In a state that spends millions each year to promote itself and sometimes the views of its elected officials, the dispute raises questions about the limits of government speech, the role of the media in handling such material, and whether the format of a state-made video news release makes any legal difference.

Margita Thompson, Schwarzenegger's press secretary, characterizes the administration's videos as simply a high-tech form of paper press release.

"This is just truly Public Affairs 101 or Information Dissemination 101," she said. "You're going to use all the tools at your disposal to try to get the information out."

But critics claim the administration's videos cross an ethical line into illegal propaganda, scripted and packaged to look like real news in a manner that could deceive viewers...

Video news releases, though increasingly sophisticated, have been around for decades. Prepackaged news segments by the Bush administration sparked controversy last year within the federal government, even though the Clinton Administration also produced them as did the administration of former Democratic Gov. Gray Davis...

State officials said they are not aware of any television station airing one of the administration's videos verbatim.

Joe Angotti, a former senior vice president at NBC News who now serves as chairman of broadcast journalism at Illinois' Medill School of Journalism, said he sees nothing sinister about video news releases.

"To be very candid, I don't blame the government for trying to use television news organizations to get their point across," he said. "The blame is on the stations that use them."

Angotti is right in putting the onus on the news media, although he's wrong in suggesting there's any blame for a television station using a VNR. The blame is in using one without requisite fact-checking and editing.