Comment by dredmorbius

It's expensive and risky. Telling truth to power invites power to fight back, and power has the means to fight.

A major unrecognised role of publishers is in providing legal shield to authors and reporters. Though some publishers are ducking out on that responsibility, see Cory Doctorow's take, "Reasonable Agreement":

https://doctorow.medium.com/reasonable-agreement-ea8600a89ed...

Alt (paywall / regwall / JS): https://scribe.rip/reasonable-agreement-ea8600a89ed7