Paul Graham wrote a great essay on this: http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html From what I've seen, it's definitel

Paul Graham wrote a great essay on this: http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html From what I've seen, it's definitely true, most "news" is at least influenced by PR firms. Part of why (now old school) blogs are so refreshing to read in contrast. I remember working at a startup, and our marketing person once asked the engineers to do some quick data analysis to get a soundbite just like this.