More like, the zoo pr team reached out to news and other organizations months in advance of the panda birth to create tens of thousands of dollars of marketing and word of mouth, in order to increase zoo attendance, donations, and memberships.
It's not a capitalist conspiracy, it's just the path of least resistance, if you are in the morning meeting deciding what stories to cover, it's a slow newsday and you have a press release from the zoo announcing the birth of the panda it's easier to just report on that than to go looking for a story.
You're right, but that's not the scenario the comment I responded to was implying.
There's a difference between "oh look, there's a baby panda, this is an easy one" and participating in a months-long coordinated campaign designed to make money.
