SHOW TO FOCUS ON REPORTED FAKERY OF 'WORLD'S WILDEST POLICE VIDEOS'

After a long, dramatic chase on the water, two gun-wielding police officers
are seen shouting at the suspected drug runners whose boat they have just
cornered.

"Get on the boat! Get on the deck of the boat! Face down!" one yells.

Host John Bunnell declares that the "suspects" are in "custody," and that
more than 20 pounds of marijuana they tossed overboard has been found.
"These smugglers won't be seeing the 20 pounds again, but they will be
looking at 20 years," he intones.

It's another flashy episode of Fox's "World's Wildest Police Videos," a
popular series based on raw footage of crimes in progress. But the episode,
it turns out, was an elaborate exercise staged for the cameras.

The "smugglers," whose faces were digitally obscured, were Florida police
officers, and the chase footage enhanced by sound effects. The only clue
that the incident was not a crime in progress was a fleeting reference
before the chase began to the "special training" needed by marine police.

The syndicated show "Inside Edition" plans to air a piece Monday accusing
the program of "duping" viewers in several segments. The staging ranges from
recreations loosely based on past crimes to outright inventions. Bunnell, a
former sheriff in Multnomah County (Portland), Ore., said it is important to
remember that his 2-year-old program is an entertainment show, not a news
broadcast.

"It's nothing we try to bamboozle the public with. ... I apologize for any
misunderstanding," he said from Los Angeles. Only a handful of segments, he
said, were "simulations" or "re-enactments."

While Bunnell believes he made an appropriate disclaimer before each
segment, he said that the reruns, and any future simulations, will be
labeled with an on-screen message that the scenes were staged.

"I wanted to show the public how the police prepare for extra-hazardous
events," he said. "Perhaps we didn't clarify it enough."

Mike Darnell, executive vice president at Fox Broadcasting, which buys the
show from Paul Stojanovich Productions, said he requested the changes after
receiving some viewer complaints.

"It's our policy to always label what we know to be a recreation or training
video," Darnell said. "Obviously it's confusing to some viewers. We're not
trying to deceive anyone. Based on viewer reaction, it wasn't as clear as it
should have been."

The program is part of a thriving subculture called "reality" television.
"Wildest Police Videos" drew 8.3 million viewers in its second half hour
last week, finishing behind CBS and NBC but ahead of ABC's "Funniest Home
Videos."

Fox loves the genre. Bunnell has acted as host on the specials "World's
Scariest Police Chases," "World's Scariest Police Shootouts" and "Surviving
the Moment of Impact" on Fox, which also airs "World's Funniest Videos,"
"Guinness World Records" and such specials as "World's Most Shocking
Moments" and "When Good Pets Go Bad."

"I'll milk it until it dies," Darnell said.

How widespread is the practice of staging footage? Darnell says such
episodes on other Fox shows are "extremely rare" and that the network
insists they be properly identified.

But in another Fox special, "When Animals Attack," a real 1996 elephant
attack on author Peter Beard was blatantly recreated -- without a disclaimer.

After the narrator mentions "remarkable home video," there is close-up
footage of a rampaging elephant and a "bloodied" actor, portraying Beard,
writhing on the ground.

An actor working on a Fox special called "World's Nastiest Neighbors" was
arrested for disturbing the peace outside Boise, Idaho, last year while
engaged in behavior, such as mud wrestling on the front lawn, that angered
the community.

Ken Bode, dean of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism,
said the standards of such programs are "inadequate" and that the techniques
occasionally spread to news and "pseudonews" shows. "I don't think viewers
are necessarily discerning enough to know they're not seeing the truth," he
said.

The sweeps-week scrutiny of journalistic ethics by "Inside Edition" is not
without irony, for while the show does serious investigations, it also pays
for interviews and occasionally indulges in tabloid excesses.

Bunnell, who co-produces "World's Wildest Police Videos," defends his
program's glitzy elements, saying: "We don't use sound effects to change the
story, it's to enhance the reality. We'll add screeches and we'll add sirens
and we'll redub what the officers say. It's to get the audience into what's
happening."

To the casual viewer, the Thursday night showdowns and high-speed chases on
"Wildest Police Videos" seem to be presented as real stories with real
pictures. Indeed, the cops-vs.-bad-guys scenarios are at the heart of the
program's appeal.