Besides the problem of news reports of dubious veracity, there is also the problem of real news being presented in a misleading way. One of these practices - false balance - is often used to skew people's opinions, make something seem more controversial than they really are, or present a side of an argument that has no evidential support as equal to another position.
A prime example of false balance in action is the "controversy" over whether or not vaccines cause autism. Sometimes media will interview a proponent of this hypothesis as well as a legitimate medical doctor. Thus creating the illusion that both positions hold equal weight when, in reality, the only study that has found a direct positive correlation between the two was found to be flawed and retracted by most of its 13 authors while numerous studies have shown no link.
In the future, I will post an article on the importance of peer-review in science which will delve further into how and why research findings are accepted, revised, or dismissed. Also, look for upcoming articles on statistics, and the importance of sample size.
Until then, if you would like to know more about the history and flaws of this particular research, the National Libray of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health has published a short but informative article entitled at The MMR vaccine and autism: Sensation, refutation, retraction, and fraud.