Fake news at 11. Last year as many as 40 television stations ran an item describing the new Medicare prescription drug law with the following sign-off: “I’m Karen Ryan, reporting.”

Problem is, Karen Ryan wasn’t a reporter and there was no indication that the video was produced by the federal government.

The federal government under President Clinton and President Bush has produced many such “video news releases” to tout their favored programs, and, inexplicably, TV stations have aired them without revealing the source.

Attached to the $82 billion appropriation bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is a small provision that imposes a one-year moratorium on the funding of government propaganda masquerading as news. Congress should stop dithering and pull the plug permanently.

Tent city idea folds. The news that more criminals can be housed at Geiger Correctional Center is a relief, considering that one option favored by county commissioners was a tent camp to be set up in a parking lot.

Maricopa County in Arizona has had a tent city since 1993, and while it has sparked enormous publicity for Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the self-proclaimed “toughest sheriff in the West,” it has sullied Phoenix’s image. That tent city was initially touted as a cost-saving project, but what made it popular was the idea that inmates were being treated harshly. However, punishment should be determined by judges and juries, not jailers.

Arpaio’s canvas encampment has spawned one riot and expensive litigation, and there is no evidence that it has reduced recidivism. And, as Spokane County Sheriff Mark Sterk pointed out, jails without walls are difficult to guard, because illegal contraband and weapons can easily be tossed over fences.

Fortunately, Geiger will be able to house 150 more inmates for about $80,000 for the remainder of the year. That’s good news for the bottom line and the county’s reputation.