Re:How much more that we don't know about? (Score 1)

Newspapers often use stuff mailed to them as news, from public relations people employed by corporations, non-profits, the government, political interests and so on.

These canned stories are called "press releases", and compose 99 percent of any newspaper editor's incoming mail. They are used on a regular basis by many publications to "fill" empty columns that the paper's hired reporters cannot. Generally, as a news reader, you do not know if you are reading news or PR if the PR is good enough quality. PR, like advertising, is always written with the purpose of persuasion, or promotion.

The reason there is so much "filler" space in newspapers, is that they rely on a ratio of about 70:30 percent advertising to news, and the advertising market determines how much extra space there will be for news.

Newspapers are notoriously cheap institutions, and have an (unrealistically) high public image to live up to, considering their cost of doing business. They live on a thin profit margin, are susceptible to political pressure groups, do not pay very well, and so, generally cannot afford to hire many trained writers. So they rely on press releases to fill the void.

Press releases are cheap (they cost nothing), and look like real news to most people.