Back in the sixties, I was involved in an event that became a news item.
When I subsequently read the account in Time magazine, there was no resemblance to the original event.
Accordingly, I learned my lesson about the news media early on.
I had the same experience and quickly developed a deep distrust of all reporters. Even when they may not have consciously distorted things for an agenda, they never accurately reported what was said (this despite having a tape recorder running through the interview) and very often reported things as entirely opposite from what was meant. Then I had the opportunity of traveling in a group which included several reporters and discovered them to be the laziest and most consistently drunk people I’d ever met. They were the Delta Tau Chi Animal House fraternity all grown up, graduated with the only college degree they’re sub-average intellects would allow.