Council were looking to bail out Wasps last year before a journo followed up leads and blew the whistle. Not saying the story wouldn't have broke elsewhere, but its resulted in the pests being verminated and one of the biggest culprits moving off the council. CET is a shadow of its former self but the human element is vital.
The thought of getting rid of journalists is one of the most ludicrous things I've read on this site, and I've read plenty! Why, after all, do dictators go after journalists as one of their first ports of call? It's as crazy as suggesting we get rid of scientists because some conclude Covid vaccines are dangerous or climate change isn't happening... or get rid of teachers because some are poor.
In fact, to get rid of journalists would fly completely in the face of certain premises of teaching. Part of the problem nowadays is the rise of citizen journalism, and that's a wild, unregulated mess where some stumble across stories, and others mislead wildly. As a result of that, the free press either come under pressure to domsimilar to compete, or they fund their budgets cut so proper journalists wither away and are replaced by the enthusiastic aateur. As with every profession, it's a nonsense not to leave it to the trained expects - who wants a journalist conducting my brain surgery, after all? A trained journalist comes with authority and a certain amount of security, knows what information to release and when, and actually conducts some research to validate the information they've got.
However, in the age of the citizen journalist, the race is to release information first.
So, don't blame journalists, blame the amateurs who marginalise the journalists. Don't blame journalists, blame the people who are just basically desperately seeking the same viewpoint to validate their prior held beliefs, so don't want to pay for a challenge to them. It should be noted in simpler times the inability to find out that information so easily led to more critical thinking too - the Sun could run a Vote Tory front page, and the majority of its readers would still vote Labour. It still doesn't matter what the Sun write in that respect... but now people seek out falsehoods from numerous randoms instead to just confirm whatever they think - the art of critical thinking is lost along with the journalist.
Get rid of journalists, allow for PPE to be sold to anybody and everbody. Get rid of journalists, become like the Soviet Union or China. Some of the crackdowns in the latter are eye watering, and they originate from silencing the media who might want to hold them to account.
Also worth noting, get rid of journalists and you get rid of half decent car reviews, a well written football report, an intelligent insight into the history of Kenilworth Castle.
Get rid of journalists, get rid of culture, get rid of freedom.