Yeah, it *does* make you wonder, doesn't it?
As an undergrad, my only required course in my major was Historiography, literally, "about the writing of history".
It can be boiled down to four basic points. (The rest of the course was learning how to track things down.)
1. Everyone has a point of view and speaks from that point of view.
2. Many people also have agendas, and will try to fit facts to them.
3. You can call history a science all you want; that doesn't keep it from being an art. [Altered for journalism: You can call journalism objective all you want; that doesn't protect the reporter from error and bias.]
4. Consider the source, and consider many of them.
This is doubly true of the news we like to hear, because that's the news we are inclined to believe.
Regards--
Mary Anne