The TV, Radio and print news organisations receive many press releases from government and big business throughout each day.
These releases outline what is going to be announced and how it’s going to be announced. The releases also give details of the people who are to be offered up to speak,usually live, on TV and Radio. These people do the ’rounds’ of the various TV, radio and print news organisations.
The releases are read out slavishly and described as accurate and the truth. The people interviewed are allowed to make their points with hardly any or no opposition from the interviewers.
All this achieves two aims. The news organisations get content to fill the slots during the day (usually repetitively all day) and they don’t have to employ investigative journalists to dig out stories and so save an aweful lot of money.
At the end of the day it’s all about these organisations either making huge profits for shareholders or for saving money so that more money can be spent elsewhere, such as on expenses, overblown salaries or massive pensions.