Have you heard? The economic crisis is solved. The health care reform bill passed and everyone is satisfied with it. There is no more violent crime anywhere. All the wars in the world have stopped, and our politicians are finally acting in our best interest. Everyone everywhere is happy; there is no news left to report. Or at least I assume that’s why news stations are airing advertisements disguised as news segments instead of real news.

The problem has nothing to do with slow news nights. Broadcasters are regularly accepting promotional segments designed to look like real news reports and airing them without identifying their source or sponsors in real news broadcasts.

These "video news releases" (VNRs) are produced by PR firms or corporations or the government to promote products, policies or certain perspectives. VNRs are then given, free of charge, to news stations to fill space in regular broadcasts. The station gets free filler “news” and the product gets free publicity.

If you think there are serious problems here, you’re not alone. This past Wednesday, Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) argued at a subcommittee meeting that more needs to be done to monitor fake news. She called the use of VNRs "unconscionable," and said that she was particularly concerned that VNRs are being used to advertise for stimulus money projects.

It would be one thing if these public relations videos appeared during a network’s regularly scheduled commercial break, but instead they’re embedded in news segments, making them appear as legitimate, trustworthy, independent news stories. And stations don’t typically disclose the source of the VNR or alert people that the segment they’re watching is a paid advert.

What’s especially troubling is that because they’re a cheap way to fill airtime, VNRs are taking the place of actual news. The clips arrive at news stations pre-packaged and ready for broadcast. This means that no reporters need to be paid and there are no production costs. VNRs take air space away from important information and substitute for actual news. Remember the crisis in journalism? This isn’t helping.

Isn’t this against the rules? Well, yeah, it is. The Government Accountability Office decided that VNRs that do not clearly identify their source are "illegal covert propaganda." In 2005, the FCC warned TV stations that they could be fined if they aired VNRs without disclosure. Then in 2007, the FCC fined Comcast $4,000 for airing a VNR for a sleep aid.

But the FCC has stopped short of following through with its threats to TV stations, and the VNR industry is alive and thriving.

Just how prevalent are VNRs? In two reports, the Center for Media and Democracy identified a total of 111 stations that aired 140 VNRs. These stations operate in markets ranging from small to large and reach more than half of the U.S. population.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. CMD reports that the number of VNRs tracked in its second study represents just a fraction of the estimated 5,000 VNRs offered to newsrooms over a six-month period.You’ve probably seen one and not even known it.

So what is being done? McCaskill is calling on the Federal Trade Commission to do more to stop the use of VNRs. But the director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the FTC responded that the agency simply doesn’t have the resources to go after fake news ads "one by one." So the FTC handed the responsibility for stopping VNR abuse back to the FCC.

While our lawmakers play "hot potato" with this issue, there is something you can do: Put pressure on the FCC to enforce the rules and penalize all broadcasters that use VNRs. After all, VNRs are targeted at you.