It's "word soup."
"If it Bleeds, it Leads"
The purpose of the media is to make money, not to report the news.
So when you tell a journalist that your cat had kittens, the journalist needs to turn that into a headline that sells newspapers or views:
TEXAS MAN GIVES BIRTH TO TWO HEADED KITTEN!
The embedded story may still contain the fundamental truth that your cat had four kittens... BUT in our 140-character twitter attention economy, the only thing anyone really reads is the click-bait'y title.
Which is incredibly frustrating, for the reasons you outlined, and more.
Yup...how many folks claim to read the news but actually only scan the headlines?
The headlines often contradict the article.
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