As far back as the 60s, I used to watch my grandfather rip off the copy from the AP teletype on the way into the studio and read it live, right on the air. The cool thing was the copy was in English, and he translated on the fly into perfect broadcast Spanish.

The wire services provide copy, free of copyright, to their subscribers so they can do that. Before the days of TV, the newwpapers simply reprinted wire service copy with only a (AP), or (UP)to acknowledge the source. Nobody is going to pay a writer to rephrase a story that comes in on the wire, especially for fluff pieces like this.

What the doomsayers never seem to complain about is all the advertising that is inserted into the news as if it were real journalism. In local TV, in particular, you may get pieces on that new stadium the station is plugging for the local team (their sports department gets a piece of that action), bring you up to date on the latest soaps, or season finales, or a human interest piece on the star of one of their prime time offerings (all for shows on their network).

Then they pad the rest with feelgood stories on kids who collect for charity, kittens rescued from trees, a homeless vet being given a bag of groceries by some local church, and a local company who sponsors fishing trips for blind people. Heartwarming, but like I give a shit.

Then, they top it all off with previews of what's going to be on during the rest of the week (again, on their network).

What's really sad is the national network news is gravitating more and more to this model. I watch PBS and the BBC news which is broadcast locally to catch up. The only exception is the local weather. I have the hots for Jennifer Gray.