A Dog and Pony Show

Why is that newspapers still feel the need to cover ribbon cuttings?  I feel they are just used by politicians and big wigs to get in the paper.  A couple weeks ago I shot three in one week and just scratched my head the whole time wondering why I was covering this.  Papers should not do stories on the ribbon cutting events but instead do stories about maybe what this new plant or school brings to the community.  And have the photographer go to the place on a different day and get pics of the people working in the facility, school, of whatever.  A picture and a story of a ribbon cutting does nothing for the reader, and the story ends up reading like a press release.