Edit: read some more about the people involved, sounds like it was worse than I thought. Sad :(
Bollocks. Look up the phrase "yellow journalism" and "muckraker". If anything there was more of an incentive to lie like a mofo because, outside of word-of-mouth, the only source of news was a newspaper.
Nowadays you're saturated with data, but you can turn it off, or dig for something that represents an alternative viewpoint. But in 1910 your only source of "truth" was what William Randolph Hearst said it was.
See also: the Spanish-American War, Fatty Arbuckle's trial, and "Rosebud"
In Catch & Kill Ronan Farrow is investigating Harvey Weinstein under the noses of NBC executives who are all friends of his and colluding to cover it up. An excellent book.
Why do you think that young people are immune from doing bad things? From all accounts, it seems she was a a sociopath.
The older you get, the less sympathy people typically have for blaming your parents/childhood for stuff. But a lot of people are inclined to cut young people some slack based on the idea that something went wrong in their upbringing and they didn't really know better.