Having been a member of “the press”(small-town weekly paper) many years ago, sometimes the “agenda” is simply editing for length while trying to write a coherent story, with incomplete information, under deadline pressure. I’m sure there are places where there’s top-down pressure to slant stories, but I didn’t see it. I do remember a lot of good discussions between reporters and editions about fairness and accuracy.
If you don’t want to be misunderstood or misquoted, “no comment” is a good choice.