My larger point is that it seems like very few of the big name reporters were doing any actual hard reporting.
My impression is that the media basically had no idea of what was going on in Arizona. They were fed a lot of misinformation and reported lots of it and then didn't report on meetings that actually happened.
My impression is that the big-name NFL reporters sat around waiting for the phone to ring so they could be spoonfed rumors from their sources. I don't get the impression that there was any hard reporting going on, meaning, staking out hotel lobbies, asking questions at hotel front desks, having the intern talk to the bartender, talking to the concierge, the maitre'd and doing all those things that hard news reporters do to get to the bottom of a story.
As for hiring a private detective for a few hours to establish locations of people so you have them on your radar screen, I think you greatly overstate the cost, especially relative to the benefit.
JMO.