Deliberately misreporting the news

or failing to report the news in a fair and reasonable fashion seems to be becoming more frequent.
I am not talking about "fake news" but attempts by journalists, columnists and presenters/interviewers to deliberately skew a story to fit with their own view of the world.
If we were to believe a recent story in the Downunder press then we would have to believe that our current Prime Minister is a racist bigot opposed to Muslim immigration and much more. 
Now I don't know this Prime Minister. I have never met him. I have met other Prime Ministers - from both sides of the political divide - and I know the media can be unkind, very unkind. But, I do know people who know him or have met him and spent sufficient time in his company to know the man rather than the media about the man. What they have told me is very different from the reports that have recently surfaced. They speak of a man who is deeply concerned about racism and attitudes towards Muslims. They speak of a man who has Muslim friends, who is welcome at their mosque, and gets invited to Muslim events not simple as Prime Minister but as a friend.
So, where do the reports come from and who is responsible for them?
I suspect much of the blame lies with a small coterie of highly influential journalists who believe they have the right to try and influence the electorate to think otherwise. These journalists are in effect political campaigners and they wield a great deal of power.
What is more, in the last few years, they have managed to get away with it. They know how to use social media to their advantage. They know their message is going to reach hundreds of thousands more than it once did. They also know that people are all too inclined to simply believe what they read or hear from a source they consider "reliable" - such as a state newspaper or major television network.
I tried pointing out to someone that indulging  in the sort of behaviour that one such presenter indulged in on Thursday evening was not merely wrong but dangerous. Politicians and other people of influence are not going to agree to appear on some programs to be interviewed by some presenters if they are then faced with a deliberate attempt to undermine and discredit them. If that happens then we won't get a balanced coverage of the news - and we all know where that leads.