> I think that's more a problem of social media, where it seems true more often than not, and not professional media

For one thing, Professional Media is inextricably linked to Social Media (especially Twitter), and are leading participants in the salacious outrage bait economy there. For another, my criticism is not that journalists are making things up from whole cloth, but rather that they are more than willing to comb through discovery filings to find the most outlandish thing anyone has every said in order to paint a picture that may or may not be an representative of the broader case.

I don't think they do this because they are the "enemy of the people", but because it drives engagement.