Rellgidkrid

TV News producers are very different than TV show (entertainment) producers. News producers, in very basic terms, write the stories that reporters don’t, make decisions on which stories go in their shows from a predetermined bucket of content that’s available that day, and make sure their newscast is timed out properly to hit commercial breaks and the end of the newscast on time. They also figure out which stories to float or kill if any breaking news happens during their newscast.
There is usually one producer per newscast depending on the market size. That’s a simplified view of what they do, but they’re not the same as Hollywood producers who are more like wheelers and dealers.

They have (usually) an Executive Producer, an Assistant News Director, and, at the very least, a News Director above them as well as anchors, Assignment Editors, etc. who would all keep each other in check. Above all that is the General Manager and then station owner.
Producers are just one layer in the decision-making process so they typically can’t really go too rogue.

Toppings distribution is often very uneven. Like all my green peppers are heavy on 1/4 of the slices and then you get an errant one or two on the other slices. Come on, now, Dominos maker! You eat pizza, too, I assume. Wouldn’t you like evenly distributed toppings??

Very true about the storytelling aspect. Beyond that, these days many TV News reporters need to also be able to shoot their own stories and possibly (probably) edit them, too. This is part of those budgets you talked about before but also because the technology has made it so much easier to turn a story without several people having to be involved (photogs, editors, live truck operators, etc… one person can do all of that quite easily, although it’s still a bit of a time suck to have to do it yourself).

That’s an agenda set by the owner of a station group. When one company owns several stations across the country, sometimes they send down customizable promos where the station just inserts their talent to say something pre-scripted. It looks bad when seen in a montage, but if you’re just watching TV in Butte, Montano, it doesn’t seem egregious.