[malsun]

Before Twitter there was a phase where journalists would monitor discussion forums (think vBulletin). I know this because I would take part in speculative discussions and the next day it turned into front page news stories. No sources but obviously came from the discussion. It spooked me and made me realise that modern journalism was already becoming lazy.

[jackcosgrove]

So it turns out the "zeitgeist" is just reporters cribbing from gossip.

[majewsky]

I don't think it's zeitgeist only. Or at least, not on such a short scale. The pre-internet equivalent of that is interviewing random people on the street about current events, to fill the 2:30 of your news report with something vaguely related to the subject.

Like in Charlie Brooker's "How to report the news": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHun58mz3vI