I'm reading NPR news and the Washington Post
lately. They both have some photos, but not
many. On the other hand, I block script and 3rd-party
images. I also don't have flash installed and see no
videos. So you might see more images than I do.

I think there's a general trend toward merging
corporate Internet sites with TV. They want to
entertain you while they track you, and many are
probably, like Google, tailoring the actual news you
see to what they think you want. So a site with 3
videos running is just the fad of the day.

Personally I'm happy if I can just find real news in
the first place. I get NYT at home. (Not my choice.)
I find that to be mostly a big business propaganda
brochure, of little value for news. I used to go to
BBC, but they keep changing their site and the last
change doesn't work well. I never go to the sites
you mentioned. I think they're just too much on
the infotainment end of the spectrum. But I can't
say that there's any one site that I *really* like for
simply finding out the relevant news of the day.

Something like the floods I see on TV. I often
watch a bit of the 11PM local soap opera, in order
to see the weather. As part of that I usually end
up watching a few snippets about the usual local
"news": the bear in the backyard; the elderly person
who drove into a convenience store; the dog that
almost drowned but didn't.... if there's any real news,
like the Texas floods, the local station will usually
have some footage. (I'm sure they're relieved that
they don't have to cook up another cute bear-in-yard
story to fill up those 4 minutes.)

But now I have another dilemma: The local news
stations have become so bad that they're filling up
most of their time with glib prattle from young lady
anchors in tight dresses, wearing far too much make-up,
along with extended weather reports. The weather
reports have become so long that they're simply too
boring to concentrate on, as the local weatherman
drones on, listing the high temperature of the day for
15 different local towns. (3 were 82F but 6 got as
high as 83F!!!) That seems to be a general trend:
Portraying the local news anchors as my buddies who
keep mr company at 11PM but don't really have much
of interest to tell me because actually reporting the
news is hard work and requires a modicum of literacy.
Lately they've even started having weather previews!
At 11 there's a mini weather report. Then at about 11:16
there's a 5 minute report. It used to be about 2 minutes
total and was more informative. I expect the next
development will be "Breaking News!! The Weather
Report Will Be Coming Up Just After This Break!!"