You essentially can't publish it if it a. Falls too far outside what the public will readily believe and b. Is not adequately backed up with verifiable hard facts.
Speculation that they intentionally pulled the fire alarm would have been considered mudslinging and yellow journalism at the time the research was done. It's print-worthy now because we now know that Theranos did so much dishonest crap that pulling the fire alarm is not unbelievable and is such small potatoes in the grand scheme of things that it isn't even mudslinging. It's a nit.
As a side note, I've started seeing the term "Overton window" more often. It's a bit shocking because I knew Joe Overton (his untimely death was a gigantic loss). It's kinda cool to see it used in general discourse now.
In Russia this concept was widely used a couple of years ago. Somebody published a popular article distorting the idea to the point of becoming a conspiracy theory against our moral values. Along with so-called "Dulles Doctrine" it became part of western conspiracy lore
I would hope a story in this vein would fall much more under b.
As you say, at that point, it would have just been mudslinging with no factual basis. In retrospect, an editor should possibly have put the resources into an investigative story--but who knows if the fact would actually have come out much earlier than they actually did. And there are lots of potential stories about things that smell wrong, some of which amount to something significant and many that don't--or at least stay under every radar.
You essentially can't publish it if it a. Falls too far outside what the public will readily believe and b. Is not adequately backed up with verifiable hard facts.
Speculation that they intentionally pulled the fire alarm would have been considered mudslinging and yellow journalism at the time the research was done. It's print-worthy now because we now know that Theranos did so much dishonest crap that pulling the fire alarm is not unbelievable and is such small potatoes in the grand scheme of things that it isn't even mudslinging. It's a nit.
* https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window