Journalists aren't random people who have "heard it from a guy who heard it from a guy". They do reporting: they call people, develop sources, and work with fact checkers. That doesn't make them right all the time, or mean you should read them uncritically. But, of course, the bullshit meme is that you shouldn't take them seriously at all. It's premised on holding journalists to a standard we don't hold doctors to, let alone software developers.