Journalists write stories in journals or diaries, also known as the mainstream media. Sometimes they even include reality. For instance, many news outlets recently quoted Dr. Jason McElyea that thousands of people were dying of Ivermectin overdoses in a rural Oklahoma hospital. The reality? There is something called Ivermectin! We are giving it to Afghan refugees right now. And they aren’t even cows! The rest? A story for diaries and journals.
“Goat” you are talking about journalists, not reporters. They went to “J-school”, not reporter school. We haven’t had news reports for a very long time. Journalists write options. Journalists are trained to write about what they want to write. They are not trained to be reporters. Bloggers, twitterers, Youtubers, Facebookers, and all the rest are also writing in journals that are public media of a different sort than TV, radio, and newspapers. I find it humorous that your friend “Rat” is the one defending free speech and calling others “snooty”.
BTW. Why is Rat the one promoting freedom of speech and against sarcasm? Didn’t Stephan make him president or something recently? ;-)