An episode of Conan featured a clip aggregating several local news sources reading the same exact story to a disturbing result.
“It’s ok, you can admit it if you bought one or two or even ten gifts for yourself!” they all begin, using the same inflection in an attempt to seem genuine. It just proves that corporate media is a dime a dozen.
Reddit user /u/theguyinyourstory who claims to work for a 24-hour news network offers an explanation, saying that there are companies who post news stories and videos for free network use. Networks will often pull these scripts when they are under a time crunch.
“No, there isn’t a conspiracy; this can be the product of laziness or rushed producers. Essentially, these are stories coming out through a news wire service.
News outlets subscribe to these services, which are essentially a source of news from all over the world. Journalists find stories, and those stories get integrated into these services. Subscribers constantly take and contribute to the service’s news pool.
News wire stories are worded as they are submitted and they may include graphics and audio/video clips for radio or TV. A good producer or anchor — or maybe one that isn’t so damn busy — will re-word the stories. This obviously didn’t happen in these cases.
I caution people from judging too harshly. While this video is hilarious, if you haven’t worked in a 24-hour news environment, you have no clue how insane the pace can be.”
Watch and judge for yourself.
