well yeah but I do tend to give the dude props for making a convincing and marketable larp. that in itself is a good skill to have as a journo even if it makes you a deplorable amoral person, which imo is inherent to the field of journalism.
he did absorb enough info watching court cases to put together a convincing larp and eventually sell his story to the (((global media apparatus))).
there probably isn't much of a future for some low-level journo in japan(or really any foreigner in asia period - you either do white monkey jobs or you larp your way into benefitting from nepotism), and larping about knowing gangbangers technically isn't illegal, so i sorta get why he did it.