Short quoting as in a few relevant sentences is fair use. Deep linking to content that is ''open to the public'' is a good practice -- sharing internet traffic between websites circumvents Google and reduces the value of their ads.
It's probably the only webocracy left today ...
defined:
webocracy - Wiktionary
Brassmonkey's quoting of Yahoo! News may irritate you, but by doing so he is fighting the Google machine, whether he realizes it or not
