Who gets to pick which items make national headlines?

There are a handful of news items every day which all media outlets unanimously report on. It could be a particular kidnapped child out of 1,000 but that same child all will report that day, it could be a comment a particular politician out of hundreds made that day - who gets to pick which items we are all to know each day, which all outlets unanimously report (on the national and international levels, the local news is independent but even then all the local news outlets will likewise report the same stories) So whose feeding the stories to the reporters?