‘Intro to a good dystopian film’: Amazon & media roasted online after TV stations aired segments scripted by company’s PR team

Commenters online found it “disturbing” and dubious that several local US news channels ran stories praising Amazon… that were written by the company’s own staffers.

At least 11 local TV stations have run pro-Amazon news segments which closely follow scripts written and supplied by the retail giant’s PR people, Courier reported.

A montage of the anchors reading out nearly identically-structured stories has been circling on social media. According to Courier, the news package was produced by Amazon spokesperson Todd Walker, and only one station – WTVG, an ABC affiliate in Toledo, Ohio – acknowledged that Walker was an Amazon employee, not a news reporter.

The segments focused on how Jeff Bezos’ company is “keeping its employees safe and healthy” during the Covid-19 pandemic, and has spent $800 million on “increased wages and overtime pay.”

Oklahoma City’s KOCO 5 anchor Zach Rael previously revealed that Amazon’s PR team emailed him footage from the company’s facilities with “a pre-edited news story and script to run in our shows.” The journalist said that he declined the offer, suggesting that Amazon should allow news crew to visit its buildings “with our own cameras” instead.

Amazon’s spokesperson later confirmed to Mediaite that the footage was created to share “an inside look” into the company’s safety measures and was made for reporters who “for a variety of reasons” were unable to visit Amazon’s sites in person.

Meanwhile, many commenters online said that news stations airing segments using scripts written by a large corporation is “disturbing” and “absolutely absurd.”

“This is depressing. It’s just the TV version of native advertising, except without the ‘sponsored content’ label,” one person tweeted.

Another said that it would be “an insane breach of journalistic standards” if the news stations failed to inform the viewers that the scripts came directly from Amazon.

Some pointed out that the stations airing the Amazon story are not affiliates of a single company, but rather owned by different companies.

Others said the montage of anchors from different stations reading off a single script looks “Quite Orwellian,” like“some dystopian stuff.”

“This feels like an intro to a really good dystopian film,” a YouTube commenter said.

According to media reports, Amazon sent out pre-edited scripts to news stations ahead of its shareholder meeting. The e-commerce giant has faced backlash and scrutiny after employees went on strike in the US and made complaints demanding greater workplace protection and better pay during the Covid-19 crisis.

Last month, a court in France ruled that the company failed to ensure the proper safety of its warehouse workers, and ordered Amazon’s operations in the country be limited to delivering only essential products such as food and medicine until it improves its workplace environment.

Amazon has denied mistreating its workers and insists that it has beefed up disease control measures to ensure safety and wellbeing.

“We welcome reporters into our buildings and it’s misleading to suggest otherwise,” an Amazon spokesperson said, adding that the footage was intended for reporters who “for a variety of reasons weren’t able to come tour one of our sites themselves.”

Amazon also said the health and safety of workers was its “top concern” and that it was making big investments in personal protective equipment, enhanced cleaning of facilities and creating less efficient process paths that better allow for effective social distancing.

It said the footage aired by the news stations was not a promotional video, and that no-one who participated in it was paid.

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