Sorry, but I think reporters deserve a bit more credit than that. (I may be biased, but my work with the media doesn't cover much of my time in the work force and has never been my major source of income.) They get ideas and information from lots of places. Nobody can get an article by taking a bunch of FT posts, or bar-room discussions, or anything else, and piecing them together. What reporters get paid for (not very much, BTW) is finding interesting ideas, realizing that they'd make interesting articles, figuring out where they can find enough additional information to flesh them out, digging up that information (which nearly always involves asking people somehow), organzing it all into a coherent whole that makes a point and grabs readers while fitting into some predetermined word count, getting the grammar more or less OK (copy editors can usually finish that bit), coping with the editorial and other personalities they run into along the way...

Anyone who thinks a writer can make a living by lurking here or anywhere else on the Net, using copy/paste commands on random posts and shipping off the result, ought to try it for a while. I'd make sure your rent is paid a few months in advance before trying.