Before I worked in marketing and then became a writer and speaker on marketing, I was a journalist and newspaper editor in the US who covered politics, business, and urban development. And it is not the job of reporters to make friends. Journalists are first and foremost supposed to provide fair and neutral coverage. Then, when warranted, they are supposed to serve as a check on those in power, to call them out when they are full of crap, and to hold their feet to the proverbial fire.