A major theme in all my books is that the CIA is not only the first line of defense but they should also be the first line of offense.
Until you learn to play what you want to hear, you're barking up the wrong tree.
If you're a reporter, the easiest thing in the world is to get a story. The hardest thing is to verify. The old sins were about getting something wrong, that was a cardinal sin. The new sin is to be boring.