But Lisa Graves, a progressive activist and president of the board of the Center for Media and Democracy, said Amazon should stick to advertising. Her group runs PR Watch, which has long documented the practice and newsrooms’ publishing of video news releases.
“It’s understandable that Amazon wants to tout its efforts in this pandemic, but it should do that through its advertising budget as advertising, or through substantial donations to help the public given how lucrative the company is and how exponentially richer its head Jeff Bezos is today than a year ago,” she said.
“It’s also the case that the broadcasters have an obligation, a legal obligation and a moral obligation, to not air pre-packaged video news releases that promote corporate products without them disclosing them as they are,” she said.