The "seriousness" of local news anchors

Have you noticed? The new thing now, locally, if not nationally, is for the news anchor at the local TV stations to stand there, reading you the news with an iPad in their hands. They don't look down at them and they don't use them to control the set or what we're watching, they just hold them as they read. I think it must be their way of adding gravitas or a level of "seriousness", as mentioned above, or some such. Any ideas why they have them out there?