Where and what was the incident, and where are you?

At the moment I am in the capital of Tunisia. The event took place in Iraq. Most of the news that I get here is centered on Iraq. Every evening there is a new video of a humvee

My roommate and I were talking and came to an impasse on the following point.
Are the news stations that show these videos (we saw another video last night of a British man begging Tony Blair for his life) merely acting in the best interest of their viewers by reporting the news in its entirety, or are the satisfying someone else by giving these films airtime.

These organizations send these videos directly to the news stations they know will play them. The organizations that air these videos are for profit organizations. What do these two facts together mean? I’m not sure, but I pretty sure that it’s the question that I want answer.