Well they have to strike some compromise between readers expecting timely news and story subjects responding to accusations, especially when they’re competing against the Joe Rogans of the world with no professional ethics whatsoever.
24 hours is reasonable. At the very least you can say “I will provide a response but it will take 7 days” and they can note that in the article and update later.
No time is usually reserved for breaking news. No outlet is going to hold a story on today’s building fire because the fireworks factory owner deserves 24 hours to respond.
In the recent case between the actress and the film director for ‘ it ends with us’ one of the sides gave the other a few hours to respond on the last working day of the year.
Assuming the email released is genuine, ProPublica itself recently sent a request for comment to someone by email with the line "Our deadline is in one hour".
It is.
Sometimes the writer will add "didn't respond before press time" to give a little more context, but most readers won't grasp what that could really mean (like the reporter might have contacted them 15 mins before press time)
Here's a current story. No idea of this news source but it is widespread. CNN is in a defamation lawsuit directly related to not waiting for a response to straighten out facts.
