I must admit that I’m having difficulty understanding what all the fuss is about when it comes to video news releases (VNRs). Last month, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission mailed letters to owners of more than 70 television stations to ask about their use of VNRs.

In the land of constitutionality (and amendments thereto), I find it fascinating that a government agency would ask about information relating to an individual’s or organization’s desire to exercise its right to cover news in any way it sees fit. But, beyond that, I think the FCC is about 50 years too late.

If they were on time, they would have been chastising any news outlet that chose to publish a news release from any organization (including the FCC) verbatim. And any slaps on the wrist to news organizations (which were mostly of the print variety when the news release was polished up and taken over by PR professionals as an acceptable tool in the exchange of information) would have taken place … well, at least before the start of the second “war to end all wars.”

Who cares if a news organization uses video news releases to fill its time slots? I certainly don’t. Let’s face it, do you know who shot the footage for any items you see on the news? Do you know if that person has a particular bias for or against the organization featured in the news item? Do you believe everything you see on television? Was the reporter, camera operator or producer even an employee of the news outlet, or a freelancer used from time to time as a means of filling content without have to add bodies to the salaries line in the income statement?

The fact of the matter is that power and responsibility are shifting in the information age, from the sender of information to the receiver of it. People today are becoming sophisticated viewers, listeners and readers of information. To exercise their responsibility, it’s important that they take what they read, see and hear with, as the Romans would have said more than 2,000 years ago, a grain of salt. And that’s a healthy process.

It’s also a healthy process when the Center for Media and Democracy publishes a study entitled “Fake TV News: Widespread and Undisclosed.” But, in my mind at least, we’re edging into unhealthy territory when a government organization demands to know where a news item comes from.

Consuming news information is a buyer beware issue the world over. If you don’t like (or don’t trust) the news you’re getting from one outlet, find another. Just as government has no place in our bedrooms, it has no place in our newsrooms either.