That said, the scary thing about the media is how it is often wrong, even if not maliciously. Whenever I see stuff reported in the media that I have a professional knowledge of, it's always riddled with inaccuracies or misunderstandings.

I think it's an example of 'lies-to-children' (when not done with malicious intent at least). Part of a journalist's or PR blurb writer's job is to reduce complex information down to something the average 'man in the street' can understand. That leads to inaccuracies and over simplifications so 'Scientists have strange neutrino results' becomes 'Top Brainiacs say neutrinos travel faster than light'. To steal from Terry Pratchett again, the story is still true for a given value of true.