If you watch much news then you will notice that those people reading it are uninformed, unrehearsed, unresearched. They often report what they hear or read from another media source. I often hear a newscaster contradict what another on the same station/channel said within the previous hour with no correction, no explanation. News today is nothing but about what will sell ads - sex sells - so if you notice we see more and more young attractive women with short dresses and low cut dresses, and we see their ankles when they read the so-called news.
Journalism is dead; it's a thing of the past to be noted in history books. Of course, one wonders now if what we, in our youth, perceived as correct news was indeed correct. What we studied in school was an idealistic view of what "ought to be" not a realistic view of "what is".
I don't see the slip you are referring to, but the pols have to know that anything that comes from their mouths is fodder for the vultures. Anything reported "out of context" makes for better news and more ads sold than the whole truth. It's sad, but it's our reality.