I blush to admit, years ago I was a news reporter for small-town papers.
If I had tried to pull some of the BS then that the “stars” get away with now, my chain-smoking hyperactive editor would have struggled not to put a boot up my ###.
If I had come back from an important meeting and told him that an anonymous source told me the executive used bad language ... well, I’d have to clean up his response ... but it would boil down to “That’s ALL you got? What the @@@@ is this $$$$? Were you on drugs when you wrote this or what?!”
And we had rules. “Anonymous” sources had to be named to the editor and publisher and information had to be confirmed by someone on record.
The only asset we really had was our credibility with people of the community. And if we lost that we were sunk. Furthermore ... we had a high calling to serve the public.Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. Question authority. Speak truth to power — because we were standing in for the little guy who had no voice and no access.
Oh, days gone by. I guess that’s all gone now.