I'm reading NPR news and the Washington Post lately. They both have some photos, but not many. On the other hand, I block script and 3rd-party images. I also don't have flash installed and see no videos. So you might see more images than I do.
I think there's a general trend toward merging corporate Internet sites with TV. They want to entertain you while they track you, and many are probably, like Google, tailoring the actual news you see to what they think you want. So a site with 3 videos running is just the fad of the day.
Personally I'm happy if I can just find real news in the first place. I get NYT at home. (Not my choice.) I find that to be mostly a big business propaganda brochure, of little value for news. I used to go to BBC, but they keep changing their site and the last change doesn't work well. I never go to the sites you mentioned. I think they're just too much on the infotainment end of the spectrum. But I can't say that there's any one site that I *really* like for simply finding out the relevant news of the day.
Something like the floods I see on TV. I often watch a bit of the 11PM local soap opera, in order to see the weather. As part of that I usually end up watching a few snippets about the usual local "news": the bear in the backyard; the elderly person who drove into a convenience store; the dog that almost drowned but didn't.... if there's any real news, like the Texas floods, the local station will usually have some footage. (I'm sure they're relieved that they don't have to cook up another cute bear-in-yard story to fill up those 4 minutes.)
But now I have another dilemma: The local news stations have become so bad that they're filling up most of their time with glib prattle from young lady anchors in tight dresses, wearing far too much make-up, along with extended weather reports. The weather reports have become so long that they're simply too boring to concentrate on, as the local weatherman drones on, listing the high temperature of the day for
15 different local towns. (3 were 82F but 6 got as high as 83F!!!) That seems to be a general trend: Portraying the local news anchors as my buddies who keep mr company at 11PM but don't really have much of interest to tell me because actually reporting the news is hard work and requires a modicum of literacy. Lately they've even started having weather previews! At 11 there's a mini weather report. Then at about 11:16 there's a 5 minute report. It used to be about 2 minutes total and was more informative. I expect the next development will be "Breaking News!! The Weather Report Will Be Coming Up Just After This Break!!" :)