The Wall Street Journal published a story that could potentially undermine beloved unicorn Theranos.

Regardless of whether the Theranos allegations are true, I’m surprised it’s taken twelve years, five rounds of funding, and a $9 billion valuation for anyone to question the company’s credibility.

Why did it take so long? Because Theranos is a Silicon Valley tech startup, and Silicon Valley tech journalists are gutless panderers.

From Ben Thompson at Stratechery:

It’s worth noting that [the NY Times Piece about Amazon] and [the Wall Street Journal piece on Theranos] are truly excellent and necessary pieces of reporting that simply don’t appear in tech publications, particularly those supported by online advertising. It’s something worth considering in the context of the ongoing debate about ad blockers and sustainable business models for journalism.

You won’t see any TechCrunch writers winning Pulitzer Prizes for Investigative Journalism, that’s for sure.