It's worse than that. We're assuming "X says [..]" is equivalent to a factual statement. Its the typical weasel wording by modern media which is simply looking

It's worse than that. We're assuming "X says [..]" is equivalent to a factual statement. Its the typical weasel wording by modern media which is simply looking to report click-bait/gossip (he says, she says), rather than expending any effort to verifying and reporting facts.