In my cynical opinion, it's because comments from the target of a story have a chance of dismantling that story, so a practice of waiting until the last possibl

In my cynical opinion, it's because comments from the target of a story have a chance of dismantling that story, so a practice of waiting until the last possible minute to ask for comment has maximized. Writers for major outlets are sending emails the night before publishing a critical story in the morning, then responding slowly enough to the eventual reply that by the time they issue a confusing correction or addendum, they've already squeezed all of the juice out of the story they're going to get and everyone has moved on.