I mean aren't real journalists meant to check sources and get both sides of a story (or outside of America anyway)?
No, they are meant to sell as much ads as possible.
The journalists I know do indeed meet society's expectations for fairness and accuracy, and make calls and pound beats, but there are also a lot more people who project themselves as journalists who are a long way from this ideal. Sadly market pressures mean there are a lot of the latter about.
[1] the original article said it was an unnamed professor of Computer Science at City College