In contrast, the press shows a decided tendency to present the news through a combative lens. The penchant for framing stories around these combative elements is even more pronounced at the top of the front page and is truer still when it comes to describing the actions or statements of government officials. Although newspapers increasingly talk about the need to explain and interpret, the findings suggest they do less of it than might be expected. The findings also confirm a presumption on the part of journalists that readers don't care much about policy or its impact. Local papers tend to rely on traditional straight news accounts and try to explain how things work more.
National papers are more interpretative and try to put news into a larger perspective.
Increasingly, news originates from decisions made in the newsroom rather than by events from the outside. The press is not simply negative or cynical. But when stories were triggered by journalists' own enterprise, the message became more distrustful.