I suppose it's because I'm old, and was educated by reading rather than by watching screens. A journalist was someone like Samuel Pepys who kept a diary to be published after the fact, providing a retrospective on events they lived through. William Shirer, despite being a reporter, was a journalist; you can see it in his books, especially Berlin Diary. Ed Murrow I'm not so sure.
But now the word "journalist" has been turned upside down, like the word "liberal". "Journalists" now publish before they've even finished thinking. I really like the new word "influencers", because that's what they are. They call themselves journalists so as to bask in the reflected legitimacy of their betters.
nb: I still don't watch screens. Haven't had a TV since 1977. Don't have the bandwidth (or the patience) to run Utoob videos. Nearest I get to social media is FR. I'm the poor slob who's read lots of history, and is now condemned to watch helplessly while the ignorati repeat it.
I’m old, as well.
I grew up in a house full of books. I have lived with books my entire life. I still have a few thousand volumes.
I also go to my local library every week or so. I’ve lived with the adages, “My books take me where my heart and mind want to go;” and “So many books; so little time.”
I mentioned Mencken as an example of a journalist on an earlier post. He started out as a reporter, but then became more of a journalist as he developed his craft and inserted his acerbic wit into his work. Great writer, Mencken.
You mentioned Shirer. Again, someone who started out as a reporter but morphed into more of a journalist. I’ve read his books. Good reads.
There are many others.
The best? Mark Twain.
Reporting went from the essential Who, When, What, Where, Why, and How to the more personal, wherein the writer introduced him- or herself into the story. That encouraged the move away from reporting and towards chronicling and then journalism, and editorializing as the most offensive.
I like reading authors who can write well and tell a good story (and history can be told through the pen of a creative writer far better than it can through the pen scratches of a mere reporter of facts).