This is true for everything a journalist might cover. They are not the expert, but still need to strive to find the truth of an issue they can relay to the pub

This is true for everything a journalist might cover. They are not the expert, but still need to strive to find the truth of an issue they can relay to the public. In this case, the underlying skill is, how do you detect and expose a cover up of inconvenient facts? I don't know the answer to that question. But seems like a core skill of a journalist, regardless of the field being investigated.