> I've seen stuff being reported by MSMs that was well below the professional threshold for me.

It's not perfect, but it exists. That's why you see retractions at major agencies[1]. That said, they don't generally feel compelled to retract conjecture, unless egregious, and conjecture is often misinterpreted as fact (likely sometimes because of purposefully vague presentation).

I still view an organization willing to make retractions as a level above one that isn't, even if the line between conjecture and fact is sometimes obscured (because they all do that, MSM or not).

1: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3891881/ns/about/t/nbcnewscom-corr...