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See, you're partially right.
It's true that they add the drama and speculation to make a story--a story they can sell. However, for the most part, it's not like the television networks shop around for a factoid that they can spruce up to scare the hell out of everyone, it happens because that's the nature of the medium. Back when all there was was Dead Tree media, you would get what happens, write a story, it lands in someone's yard, and you don't have to do anything with it until tomorrow when the next issue comes out.
Then came television.
Then came Peter Jennings and Dan Rather framed by a plastic box for fifteen hours a day because it's something people want to hear. With the medium of television, you can't just get what happens and write a story for people to read, you have to fill fifteen hours. Straight.
Something has to fill that time, and when you run out of stuff to say about what really happened, you speculate about what could happen, just to fill time. I'm not saying it's a great idea, I'm just saying it happens that way.
I certainly don't think it's a conspiracy by the networks to scare people into watching more Tide commercials.
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