conan o'brien somehow made 100 news anchors say the exact same thing...

[xchrom]

would this happen if the media wasn't in somebody's pocket?

[lapfog_1]

1. Sort of..

I worked at a local TV station for a year, and I know how lazy (and understaffed) they are.

If an "interesting story" comes over the AP wire service... and especially if it comes in a convenient sound bite package... they will simply route the AP wire story verbatim to the prompter. Little to no editing or rewrite required. If they worry that other stations in their market will do the same, they might change one or two words... but that isn't really all that well thought out.

"Never blame something on malice which can best be explained by mere incompetence."

So, since AP is a single source ubiquitous news service, especially for these "not newsy enough to come from the network, but not local stories either", I'm not at all surprised.

[TreasonousBastard]

3. I thought it sounded like a press release, but...

yeah everyone in any media appreciates nicely packaged semi-news.

[JHB]

4. "Rip & Read" has been around for at least half a century n/t

[KurtNYC]

9. this copy came from CBS newspath

"The original source of the copy was CBS Newspath, according to staffers at two stations featured in the clip. Although “Conan” only showed 18 stations, a search of TVEyes.com reveals that 27 stations reported the story using identical wording "

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvspy/how-did-28-stations-end-up-with-identical-scripts-for-a-story-about-conan-obrien_b28039

[Confusious]

2. How many ways are there to say

"push the envelope?"

[Gabby Hayes]

5. Priceless!!

Too bad they didn't follow up with a story about how cool the wedding was.

As for "pushing the envelope," I don't think there was one big enough for the masturbating bear.

[Berlum]

6. Wow - Corporate (R) "journalists" at work

disgustipating

[pam4water]

7. Pure journalist minds uncorrupted by a single original thought. :P K&R

[Scuba]

8. Our "free" press in action.

[KurtNYC]

10. "push the envelope" is a reference to airplane design

in effect CBS is suggesting that a same sex wedding on TV may violate the laws of physics.

[JBoy]

11. LOL @ Andy Richter at the end:

"We've got to get an envelope!"

[VWolf]

12. You say "ehnvelope", I say "ahnvelope"

See? They're not ALL saying the same thing!

[3128]

13. best one yet!