Ah Hear Ya, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah

With apologies to The Beatles, I have noticed a trend lately among (I am presuming to be) fairly educated and sophisticated people on the radio -- reporters, announcers, anchors, learned experts, and persons in the know.

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Interviewers, especially with a limited amount of time to present a point or a factoid, tend to ask questions which lead to an affirmative answer or agreement. When asked such a question by the anchor, reporters (even those with British accents which we American Anglosnobs tend to associate with the "fairly educated and sophisticated people" --  note of irony of quoting self!) say, "Yeah."  "Yeah, and ... "  "Yeah, that's right."  And, when I hear that, I hear The Beatles singing, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. ... With a love like that, .. you know it can't be bad."  I know, it's total lyric-mangling, but that's what my mind hears right after the reporter, the anchor or the person-in-the-know says, "Yeah."
Why? Why say, "Yeah?"  Does "yes" make the reporter sound too stuffy?  Too educated and sophisticated?  Will "yes" go the way of "whom," obsolete and too cool for words?  Where's the Society for Creative Anachronism when you need it?