This might be true for highly technical topics but that is not close to most reporting. Most of the real meat of reporting is on politics, institutions and how

This might be true for highly technical topics but that is not close to most reporting. Most of the real meat of reporting is on politics, institutions and how they are functioning (or dysfunctional), sociological trends, crime, analysis/commentary on those kinds of topics, and the occasional heartwarming fluff about some quirky local person or organization. We have yet to see professional, disinterested 3rd parties doing serious full-time work on this kind of stuff except when employed as journalists.