Well let me put it another way: in the whole series there are two groups of people of whom we learn very little: The Greeks and the Reporters. The point of the Greeks is that they are the New World Order of crime: they have no real identity of their own, so they "adopt" the identity of Greeks (at one point the head guys admits he's not even Greek). They move from one coast to another, have multiple passports etc. They stand in contrast to all the crime figures in Baltimore, who are fiercely Territorial (Marlow, Barksdale), tied by sentiment (Prop Joe) or simply can't conceive of anywhere outside of Baltimore (Bodie).
Now look at the reporters. Alma is committed to being a reporter as a career: she has a boyfriend: at the end of the series she is transferred to bumfuck. And she's somewhat honest, though one can speculate on whether she's "learned" something by the end. Scott Templeton (the "bad guy"), what is he? A shallow, ambitious incompetent who gets lucky. He clearly gives fuck all about Baltimore and tries to move on to the Washington Post). Gus is the only local guy, and clearly has ties to the community. The senior editor and the publisher are living in their own 1% world, and not connected to the community at all, though they would tell you I'm sure that that's what they're all about.
from the initial pitch to HBO, with detailed outlines for each episode. Certainly looks legit. I didn't read through it all, but it looked like Kima was originally slated to be killed midway through the season, and I see no mention of Prez at all.
