[yesco]

I think you could technically refer to them as journalists too but I meant the traditional non-independent kind. Honestly the rise of bloggers + youtubers providing higher quality well sourced content than the mainstream is partially why I think this might become a de-facto requirement to compete in the future.

[eru]

I'm not so sure.

Because those alternatives exist, people who care about that kind of sourcing will select themselves out of the audience of traditional journalism. That will leave that audience with less demand for such rigor.

(At least that's an alternative story you can spin. So we can't say a priori whether your narrative or mine would prevail, at least not without leaving our armchairs.)