現代的電視新聞環境之所以備受批評，在於新聞被視為商品，閱聽人成為顧客，消費的喜好程度反映在收視率，這種企業化經營模式使新聞逐漸喪失「公器」的監督功能。新聞既已商品化，電視台提供新聞商品愈能大量生產、多樣化（diversity），才能降低成本，產生更大邊際效益。在台灣，號稱24小時提供資訊的有線電視新聞台提供的新聞卻多來自於報紙，抄襲報紙消息來源，產製與報紙相同的新聞成為電視新聞的基礎，如此又窄化新聞多樣化，提供重覆資訊以致矛盾叢生。本研究從2014年10月2日至11月18日與2015年3月至4月期間的中午十二點午間新聞時段，監看台灣六家主流新聞台的新聞內容，新聞消息來自於報紙的比例第一波：TVBS 36.22%，三立24.39%，民視38.41%，中天44.73%，東森26.95%與年代的26.32；第二波：TVBS 30.79%，三立20.02%，民視31.20%，中天30.21%，東森18.90%與年代的35.82%。「看報紙作新聞」成為新聞台產製新聞的工作模式，但對閱聽人而言，卻降低「知的權益」的基本權利，更產生資訊負外部性的社會效應，所謂「媒體的社會功能」成為口實，新聞商品已經「論斤計價」，悖離傳統新聞倫理，以整體社會資源的分配，新聞成本重覆配置的浪費，形成「媒體失靈」（media failure）現象。

The reason why Taiwan's TV news has been criticized is because the news is regarded as commodities. Therefore, the TV companies take the audiences as either customers or consumers by measuring with ratings and ignore their social responsibility of supervision function purposes. TV news should offer diverse information for more marginal utility but unfortunately the news has been commercialized now. In fact, TV stations try to get cost down and ask reporters for doing the same thing to provide news duplicated partly from newspapers, magazines or network outlets. Gradually the news environment overlaps with redundant information and results in negative external effects causing a lot of controversy. In this preliminary observation research of newspapers from 2nd October to 18th November in 2014, Taiwan's six cable TV stations broadcast the news at noon, in which were found plagiarism from the newspapers. The proportion of news content from the study showed TVBS 36.22%, SETN 24.39%, FTV 38.41%, CTiTV 44.73%, ETTV 26.95%, ERA26.32%. Copied the news from newspapers has become an important operating model of information source for TV stations. To appraise and make news became working schemata. The TV stations depreciate the news values as commodities and take the so called media social function as an excuse to deprive the audiences of their right to know and violate the traditional news ethics. By doing so, it will be a ＂media failure＂.