Assisting people in an effort to steal classified materials is not in fact something journalists fo all the time. The moment you cross the line from just receiving classified materials to paying for or helping to attempt steal, your stepping into criminality.

Journalists just dumb down whatever press releases are on the newswire that day and then head down to the pub.

There was some golden age that is always a generation ago where journalists did great things, but, they weren't journalists, they were whistleblowers that happened to work for the media.

If you work for the corporate media then this 'golden age' journalism is just not possible. You would be sacked if you wrote the truth or went further than the press releases on the newswire for content.