Journo's are complete arseholes, they only have to use " alleged " in the report to protect themselves , or in the case of sports reporting " it rumoured that ........".
When I lived in Moree I was the local Chamber of Commerce President and we were trying to get a bypass for the town.
A radical editor arrived in town, took a dislike to the project as it involved clearing some bush land and started a campaign against the proposal.
I was target number 1, and he wrote a story that " alleged " I was on the take from rich business people whose land had to be reclaimed and was going to profit big time from the proposal.
All total crap of course, I threatened legal action, went to a law firm and was told because it was only " alleged " that I could do nothing.
So I got the Chamber members together and we pulled all the advertising from the local paper, which went for 3 weeks and then the owners called a meeting.
We said, sack the editor and do a full front page apology and retraction ( which they did ), the trouble is the story haunted me for years afterwards.
So yes ZERO respect for journo's, especially the paper / social media ones.