It is not just science journalism it is all journalism. In my experience the most accurate reporting is in science.
Outside of science any reporting that I have had any personal knowledge of has been so distorted that I wonder if journalists and I inhabit different universes.
> In my experience the most accurate reporting is in science.
I agree with your general claim about journalism, but really, "the most accurate reporting is Science" ? There are so many fallacies embraced by journalists whenever they review Scientific results (the largest one being the lack of understanding of the differences between causation and correlation), that I can't even begin to fathom while that would be more accurate than the rest.
The attention economy (the limits of human cognition) vs deadlines.
My group championed private voting, public counting. We tried to influence policy, with mixed success. I spent years becoming an expert on election integrity, voting rights, election administration, etc.
It's not possible to convey all that knowledge casually. So you have to work very, very hard on messaging. And then tenaciously pound the same point over and over again until it gets thru.
Outside of science any reporting that I have had any personal knowledge of has been so distorted that I wonder if journalists and I inhabit different universes.