The New York Times | Under Bush, a New Age of Prepackaged TV News

"Local affiliates are spared the expense of digging up original material. Public relations firms secure government contracts worth millions of dollars. The major networks, which help distribute the releases, collect fees from the government agencies that produce segments and the affiliates that show them. The administration, meanwhile, gets out an unfiltered message, delivered in the guise of traditional reporting."

This sounds pretty much as if it were straight out of "Manufacturing Consent".