Watching news live, you can see that 9 out of 10 news reports are just based on some other report........... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jillian-york/the-media-and-the-algeria_b_822562.html?ir=Media
You would never hear the news if it wasn't distributed. News aggregators like AP pick up a story from some part of the world and distribute it to it's subscribers who repeat the story in their news if they find it relevant. That's how the news gets widely dispersed.
I never could stand watching news reports, even as a teenager.. they just gave me the creeps the way they didn't inform.. I used to read Soldier of Fortune magazine to get the view from a merc that was right in the middle of things.. You can sum up the viewpoint, philosophy, history, etc. of any party in a conflict in a paragraph or two and they did that... not sure if the mag is still around actually, probably should be reading it...
Rachel Maddow, US Weekly, and Time all reported, as fact, a story regarding Palin that was from a satirical website. Brilliant.
I say it here, it comes out there............ http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/23/churnalism-pr-media-trust?INTCMP=SRCH
Speaking of the news............. my wife just walked in and said the local news has started giving soap opera updates! "News" gets worse and worse. It's been over 15 years since I've seen the local news all the way through. Anyone else have a similar experience?