From the stories that come off the external wires or from internal journalists,
the copy editors select some few for the next edition. The copy editor limits
the volume of news largely by rejecting entire stories. For broadcast news,
from which I draw my data in this study, the selection process is drastic.
At BBC news, the "copy taster" discards 90% of news agency material
(Schlesinger, 1978, p. 60). In New Zealand, the main overseas wire carries
about 100 OOO words daily, which would occupy ten hours of continuous
radio broadcasting. Again, about 10% gets through the gate.