I think the problem is that people don't "know" the journalists largely anymore. I don't know how people trusted these journalists in the past, perhaps it was by following their work throughout years and seeing repeated truths. However, largely no-one is following a journalist today. How can I trust some random person? There are news sources, with seemingly qualified journalists that genuinely just "make up" news. If journalists are able to do that, who knows this wasn't the same?

If it's a valid, public source, well, even if you don't know the source, if someone is willing to put their name to the news, maybe it's more valid.