'The Making of...' real-life fiction.

• Author: Saltzman, Joe

It started out benignly enough. Local news programs began plugging their network's docudramas--movies based partly or wholly on real life. The stations claimed the plugs were legitimate news stories because they involved real people in real-life situations. Critics deplored the practice, pointing out that the stations only promoted their own network's products and that the thin line between entertainment and news was blurring to the point where it was difficult to distinguish one from the other. But their cries of alarm reduced them to Chicken Little in the public's eye. The sky was not falling. No one takes any of this seriously anyhow.

So the trend continued. Soon, all kinds of movies, specials, and even network television programs were being featured on all the local news programs, morning, noon, and night. Interviews with film and TV stars began to appear on a regular basis. You could watch your favorite sitcom or dramatic program, then see the stars again on the 11 o'clock news. Once again, critics shouted out the alarm, but by this time no one seemed to care much about any blurring line between entertainment and information because the line was nonexistent. Only disgruntled journalists could remember when the line existed at all, and most of them were being phased out of news operations across the country.

This year, Disney has taken that kind of hype to a new level. The corporate giant, which now owns ABC network TV in addition to its own cable channel, blanketed news programs with "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" promotions and also purchased ads inside newscasts that looked like the news' entertainment segments complete with a "movie critic" raving about the film. But the company didn't stop there. It created a special (produced, directed, and written by the Disney Company) called "The Making of `The Hunchback of Notre Dame'"--in reality, an unlabeled 30-minute commercial for its new animated film. This kind of infomercial has been around for years. It looks like a piece of journalism, a behind-the-scenes peek at the making of a major movie with top box-office stars. But it's the modern equivalent of the old-fashioned TV sponsored show in which program and commercial message merge into one.

"The Making of ..." 30-minute commercial appeared several times on the Disney Channel as well as the Disney-owned Los Angeles channel, KCAL, and various ABC stations across the country. The program, complete with interviews and news magazine-type...