To me "did not immediately respond to requests for comment" smacks of neediness and self importance on the reporter's part (answer me now, you fools, don't you know who I am and what power I behold?!) and the people that would respond to such comments being in the middle of dealing with something more important at the time (perhaps answering a queue of queries that came in first, or queries from people who are more important to their world view). If I were RedHat or Ansible and read that sentence the reporter and/or outlet would be added to a "never respond to these people for at least 24 hours" list...

The appropriate line for online publication is "We reached out to both x and y for comment and will update this article with any responses we receive."

See, I actually have more respect for journalists who put things like that.

I don't think it's self-important, but I do think it's important to note that you can't send someone an email at 9 PM on a friday and expect a response. Noting that they did not _immediately_ respond is an important differentiation between not responding at all.

> answer me now, you fools, don't you know who I am and what power I behold?!

Alternatively, "Answer me now, before someone else beats me to publication, oh god please ... c'mmooon it's almost deadline, pickuppickuppickuppickup ah dammit, too late."

Emphasis yours. That line has existed in journalism for decades. I think it's interesting that the perception exists that this is somehow arrogant; to me, it seems to protect Red Hat/Ansible from the perception that they're uninterested in public relations. Source: I work for a newspaper.

I have always read it as "did not respond to requests for comment, but we didn't give them much time."

More like "Both companies didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. Its 8:30PM and no one's taking my calls or responding to my emails, but we're an online publication and want our content to go viral and get maximum eyeballs, so we'll run this story anyway."

Those quotes are found in a huge number of stories.

Sure you can blame them for a rush to publish if you want. I think mainly they are trying to indicate they reached out to a relevant party and didn't hear back. And by saying didn't hear back immediately they are making clear that it may well be the party wasn't immediately available (not that they were not willing to respond at all).

On some (maybe all, I don't know) sites, they then update the story if they get responses.

And it's the ambiguity of what they actuall tried. Maybe they pulled open their desk drawer and whispered the question into it.