Natiinal Merit SF and finalists names are typicslly available from all kinds of media outlets. My son was a SF and his picture was in the paper along with the others from his school. I can’t remember if we had to sign something for that. We all knew well in advance and coukd have objected I assume. We also have always signed a form every year authorizing the school to use our kids in any publicity etc. That lmay have sufficed for putting him in the paper. But as I said we all knew and coukd have objected. “We will be taking pictures for the paper next week” type of deal. I assume similar happened in this situation. Certainly the kid knew he was being put on TV.