One difference between actual journalists and people who just post their opinions on the Internet is that journalists will make phone calls. Even when they don’t talk to people in person, that’s still valuable.
A lot of people claim to be journalists and yet lack a fundamental understanding of journalistic principles and best practices.
Even if someone is blatantly trying to deny or turn the story, they may give you information you didn’t have before (and that they were unlikely to give you absent publication pressure).
It’s a superpower to be able to say ‘I have words written. Now what would you like to tell me?’
I enjoy reading Krugman so much now because he seems to be having so much fun now that he doesn't have the weight of the New York Times editors on him.
I particularly enjoyed this bit of nihilism:
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/enshittification-and-the-...
>Hell hath no fury like a tech god scorned
The NYT pushed them out because they made fat salaries, money that could, in the company's view, be used to pay for cheaper and younger labor, among other cost-saving measures.