[Pan_Yans Wife]

What is amazing to me is that when you read a variety of the nation's papers, they all say the same thing. They check with the paper of record first, and then write a similar story. Imagine, reporters actually having to hunt down stories!

One of the reasons why I think FR is popular, is because there is a wider variety of articles to read, since we all sift through them and post the ones that we find pertinent.

[jwalburg]

Agreed. I do think most national AP wire stories go through Times editors before being distributed on the news budgets to local papers. Thank goodness for the Internet which allows you to cultivate a broad selection of sources -- and FR especially