Under-resourced, underpaid and under editorial leadership with no appetite for scrutiny? Those daily 20 Things You Will Not Believe Scousers Say Outside Greggs don't write themselves.
Having been on the fringes of that scene for a couple of years in the mid-00s, I just witnessed burnt-out career journalists planning their exit strategies and eager, generally out-of-town, graduates who were willing to churn out any old shit for Trinity until London called.
Not to disparage him personally, but it says it all that the Echo's current political editor's most notable contribution to the Fifth Estate is a story about him being 6.2cm tall. I think he won an award for it.