After months of reporting under the umbrella of an unnamed regional publisher, two outlets pled potential penury when it came time to finally pull the trigger and publish the results of a nine-months-in-the-making, daring, damning investigation into the behavior of rapper R. Kelly since Jim DeRogatis’ shattering first reports in the Sun-Times in 2000. Since the Hulk Hogan case against Gawker, partially financed by baron Peter Thiel, outlets without the deepest of pockets have shimmied away from the kind of hard-hitting investigative reporting that the survival of journalism will depend upon. It took several days, but the legal team at BuzzFeed cleared D-Ro’s blast on Kelly’s apparent, alleged “sex cult” for publication in July.
