As a news junkie, one thing I notice all the time is that when something breaks it begins with one of the major media giants, i.e. WaPo, CNN, etc., with roughly a 1/2 delay until other MSM outlets pick up on it. What happens during that half hour, do other media outlets have to get permission and negotiate details with whoever broke the story, or are they free to do as they wish but they wait a bit due to professional courtesy? How does it work?
Nobody needs permission to report news. If something newsworthy is broken by one outlet, others who wish to cover it must spend a non-zero amount of time writing their own articles and potentially talking to their own sources and experts.
Ok, so the gap is often due to other media outlets doing their own due diligence, i.e. MSNBC isn’t simply willing to take a story released by the NYT at face value, which obviously makes sense.
If the situation is that the New York Times reports a big, exclusive story, MSNBC might start by re-reporting the same story as, “The New York Times reports that . . .” This both attributes the story and assigns the blame if the story is wrong. At the same time, they’re furiously trying to verify the story and develop their own sources. Eventually, the collective work of multiple media sources arrive at the same story.