No misunderstanding - I get what you’re saying and I disagree.
I also don’t agree that expecting journalists to be accurate makes someone an asshole. If they were reporting on an automobile and wrote that the spark plugs make 500HP we could guess what they likely meant, but we’d also recognize the journalist’s ignorance. They should educate themselves on their subject matter so they can do their job properly.
Filming / photography in public is a First Amendment protected activity.