I am surprised at how much people think many of these reporters are objective when in fact it is just as you indicate, they write for the guy signing the check.
I wish I had a dollar for every time I saw articles get kicked back or personally had articles kicked back or canned/for rewrites, because a publisher or editor didn’t wish to ‘offend’ a reader segment, politician or advertiser. There are a few ex journos on FR. We will all tell you the same.
People no longer enter the industry to report. They do it to make a buck or push agendas. Hometown paper, website or NYT. WaPo. Doesn’t matter. Believe nothing you read outright. Ever. The only hope to find truth is to piece it together from a variety of sources.