Journalists were always the most annoying proponents of the old blue check system. Where it worked well was letting people check someone claiming to be a public

Journalists were always the most annoying proponents of the old blue check system. Where it worked well was letting people check someone claiming to be a public figure really did represent that figure. But then journalists, who got the check as a matter of course by their employment, started treating it as a mark of credibility and demanding people they didn't like be stripped of their check. I never trusted blue checks. I would regularly see fake accounts in the pre-Musk days and I regularly see fake accounts today. But I do take pleasure in the wounded egos caused by the new system.