[I]f the “essence of the article” is the fact of the event itself, e.g. floods in IA, and that is the entire value of the content, then the content is sorely lacking in value. If local and national news sites can create more value than just the commodity statement of the facts, which be “given away” in a snippet, then they can earn all of the links and traffic on the web for their original reporting. They should also look at how they allocate resources to creating original content that people want to and can link to vs. licensing content that nobody wants to or can link to (especially when that same licensed content appears on Google, Yahoo, and hundreds of other sites).
If local and national news sites really want to seize the opportunity, they won’t just leave it to bloggers to link to their original reporting — they will start linking to each other’s original reporting, and help each other capture that economic value, which they so clearly need.