Rarely was it pointed out that nearly all of the ballots had only been tabulated by machine and few were examined to see if legal and identifiable votes were cast. Some in the press think objectivity is served by quoting both sides in an argument. But good reporting is not letting any statement uttered by a public figure go unchallenged. Say something loud enough and often enough, and it gets accept as fact. We know the answer to that question.
Sports fans demand truth from the press.
Sports reporters are naturally adversarial because they know they are observers and not participants in the game's outcome. They interpret what happened, put it into context, and tell what it means. Those who blindly accept spin don't last long on the sports beat. In politics, the press thinks it is part of the process, that they are players and not observers. And they always want to be on the winning side.