So, when Google talks about anything in this field, it's time to pay attention.
The latest Google News blog post indicates a new recrawling feature has been implemented to find the most relevant, updated articles.
"How do you balance looking for new content against the need to update older content? How can you make sure the content is fresh, doesn't link to dead pages or display headlines that have been changed by the publisher?"
"For readers, this feature is intended to reduce the number of outdated headlines and dead links you might find. And for publishers, rest assured that we'll be back to find your latest stories and updates as soon as we can."