The exclusive value of journalists is in the journalism - finding sources, collecting evidence, piecing together information. The writeup at the end, be it an a

The exclusive value of journalists is in the journalism - finding sources, collecting evidence, piecing together information. The writeup at the end, be it an article or a tv segment or whatever, is little more than a tool to present the findings. Undoubtedly a well communicated piece is superior to a poorly communicated one, but good reporting is only useful so far as there is something to report. Too many news outlets have mistakenly come to believe that their articles are the content. This has led to severe degradation of actual investigative journalism as the news outlets were reduced to summarizers with delusions of grandeur. How many articles now are just "X released a statement today; brief recap of previously reported context; Y commented on the statement; Z has yet to comment" with possibly a "here were some reactions on twitter" sprinkled in? Some good pieces get through, but they drown in a sea of mediocre, regurgitated "news." Honestly, most news articles ought to be written by AI. This should allow journalists to focus on the important bit where their curiosity, their insight, their critical thinking, their zeal, and frankly their humanity can actually be put to good use. I only hope that WaPo is doing this to better focus its resources, and not to eliminate what little of its capacity remains.