I think new ways to fund investigative reporting will arise, and that they'll be just as problematic, ephemeral, and controversial as the current ones. Obvious

I think new ways to fund investigative reporting will arise, and that they'll be just as problematic, ephemeral, and controversial as the current ones. Obvious example: How deeply can an investigative reporter at NBC really probe into the affairs of General Electric, the company that owns it? Similarly, if a bunch of local realtors got together and hired an investigative reporter to cover real estate, people would howl and moan about conflict of interest...but that person would probably dig up some great stories, just not stories about the companies funding him/her.