Just like any other professional, a reporter may want to do a good job (because of dedication to their work, desire for fame, career ambitions, etc). And that means publishing an important story. That desire may push them to look for evidence where there's none, and humans are good at making themselves and others come to the wrong conclusions in such situations.

By the way, this also explains why prosecutors sometimes lie or exaggerate.

Furthermore, some reporters want to influence public opinion in a certain way because of their personal beliefs or peer pressure.

I do not claim any of this applies to Reveal. I just want to point out why money from views isn't the only mechanism for misleading reporting.

A really good news organization may create pressure against reporters overstepping the bounds in pursuit of a story. But IMO it takes an incredible effort to counteract the human tendency to bend the facts to help make a point.

Of course, CEOs have even more obvious reasons to mislead people: maintainging good corporate and personal image. This is compounded by the fear subordinates have in telling the CEO that they are wrong. Also, the more successful the person, the more likely they are to be a bit delusional by believing everything they do is right, and ignoring any criticism.

Views. That's primary reason reporters exaggerate news, controversy has a monetary benefit. (This doesn't necessarily mean that the reporter in question here is exaggerating, however)

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but Reveal is an independent nonprofit organization. The idea that you would prescribe to "clicks" as a justification for not trusting their reporting is a very damning thing to me.

For a site that prides itself on it's intellect and knowledge, it's unsettling how often I'm seeing people jump to "fake news" type of commenting.

As someone working in the media business. Please could you at least google the outlet you‘re talking about? You‘re embarrassing yourself with your own ignorance. Reveal is a non-profit. They don‘t care about page views, because they don‘t need advertising to finance themselves. There‘s only one thing an investigative journalism team cares about and that‘s reputation. They are deeply incentivized against publishing half-assed work or missinformation. Please just stop repeating this meme over and over that journalists only care about page views.