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.