They lied through their teeth. I don't mean they slightly shaded the facts I mean they made up things that did not happen and did not report things that did.
I never believed another thing I read as something close to fact until I confirmed it from two or three different sources.
As my mother would say, "paper will lie still and let you put anything on it."
Any time I have been familiar with behind-the-scenes information on a news event, I have been amazed at the reporting, and how much they got just flat wrong. I assume everything in the news works this way, now.