Occasionally a newspaper employee will joke that all local TV stations do is read that day’s newspaper on air. This is silly for a couple of reasons. First of all, all news organizations read/watch each other for tips. They’d be stupid not to. There are plenty of times that TV breaks the story first. This was true even before the web.
But what makes this joke a little dangerous is the fact that it ignores a perhaps uncomfortable truth: all local news organizations make heavy use of Associated Press content. So sure, TV might have repackaged an AP story for air. But how many newspaper stories are copy-and-pasted from the AP wire?
This post contains the opinion of Heather Meadows and no one other than Heather Meadows. The above should not be construed as the perspective or conclusions of anyone but Heather Meadows. Heather Meadows!