Printing press releases nearly verbatim happens all the time in small-city newsrooms. It’s nothing devious — just plain laziness combined with time/column inches to fill.
True, but it needs to be credited as a press release.
For the most part, you’re right. As someone who has worked in really small markets such as the one Huston mentioned, it’s not too uncommon to see things like this happen-—but mostly from kids that are younger than I am that suffer from naivete more than anything.