[curiouscats]

Those quotes are found in a huge number of stories.

Sure you can blame them for a rush to publish if you want. I think mainly they are trying to indicate they reached out to a relevant party and didn't hear back. And by saying didn't hear back immediately they are making clear that it may well be the party wasn't immediately available (not that they were not willing to respond at all).

On some (maybe all, I don't know) sites, they then update the story if they get responses.