There's never been absolute, conclusive evidence of either 1) LIQUID water CURRENTLY existing on Mars or 2) LARGE quantities of LIQUID, FLOWING water on the surface of Mars. Plenty of hints though.
The basic problem (and this goes for a lot of the science threads on FR) is that most popular media reporters and editors are absolute, total morons who completely botch every science story they write.
I've talked to scientists who are awestruck at how badly some newspaper article will totally botch everything they told them in some interview.
All too often people seem to complain more about the scientists instead of the idiots writing the stories, though.
A lot of popular media headline writers don't understand the distinction between frozen and liquid water on Mars, so they'll have headlines saying "Rovers find water on Mars" causing befuddlement among people aware that there's already pretty conclusive evidence of frozen water in the ice caps