Apparently, Google News has been chastised recently for an abundance of low quality material, and a whole lot of a canned shoulder pork ham product appearing high up in Google News. So, while not telling exactly how many, Google has admitted to dropping, quite a few websites that they considered not living up to the terms of use policies. Google news would not comment on specific publishers, but did say,
"We have certain guidelines in place regarding the quality of sites included in the Google News index. We do this to ensure that we offer a high-quality experience for Google News users. Our support team periodically reviews news sources, particularly following user complaints, and takes action when appropriate."
It seems that Red Label News, an organization owned by another outfit , 70 Holdings, along with a lot of others, have been gaming Google News for page impressions and ad clicks. They do this by tangentially referencing hot topics on many sites simultaneously, and using irrelevant keywords.
Our Super bowl spammer generated tens of thousands of page impressions in a matter of hours, many of the Super Bowl sites he listed talked about how well the two teams did in the World Cup, in boxing, and in Liverpool. Quite a few of them were picked up by Google News almost immediately.
It may be a while before Google News gets this all sorted out.