To Journalists, who salivate over misfortune

People struggle with hardships, violence, mental health, family issues, grief, physical handicaps and illnesses, every day. We are all human. None of us are perfect.
When someone awful happens, too many journalists leap at it like a dog at a squirrel and make assumptions, and statements, that they think will get them clicks on their articles, and shares, and 'likes' and comments. They cease to remember that the person about whom they are writing is a person who is experiencing something awful.
How would they feel if it was their family member, or themselves, with their photo in the paper, and a misleading headline that makes them seem like some kind of a deviant? The whole story has not come to light, and won't for some time, because the people involved in the proceedings can't just jump up and say 'But there is more to this that what it seems!' because every lawyer on the planet advises against that. Voiceless, they are judged, and convicted, by the public. And when the truth does come out, it's not nearly as exciting as what they THOUGHT happened, so no one cares. Two years of living in fear of being recognized. Two years of being afraid to use one's own name. Two years of having people who know nothing but what the paper says, make horrifying comments and judgements. Over what? A misunderstanding. Over nothing. A victimless crime.
I read a novel years ago about a community in the 1800's who was persecuting a person over a rumour, and someone said 'Why don't they care to find out the truth before they do this?' and the reply was 'Because the truth has no spice in it' Have we not learned anything since then? Have we no empathy at all, or a thirst for truth? Or are people all just so susceptible to clickbait and false headlines that they just don't care to know?
The small group of people who cared enough to ask, and heard the whole story, the true friends and family members, have stood by us the entire time and sometimes it's almost enough that one is not alone, but it's infuriating. It feels like journalists and the media have no integrity at all. When the whole story is told, it will be too late. Two years of our lives, almost 40 thousand dollars, lost employment, lost reputation. Why? Because the truth was not as interesting as the assumption.