The media's journalists are surprisingly ignorant when it comes to any knowledge of a subject that is not right at the surface. To a track enthusiast as yourself and others, you understand the nuances of and relatability of how performances and times relate to each other. You know that 4:06 is not in reality that close to being able to break a 4 minute mile. The media doesn't realize this. They see that the time is only 7 seconds away from 3:59 and automatically assume that it's just a near miss and that next time Faith would only need slight adjustments and then she would break 4.
The journalists are using their experience in the world that 7 seconds is trivial and incorrectly applying it to this situation because they didn't consult with experts. They just arrogantly followed their own instincts like they usually do with many other topics and fields. For example, the media usually misinterprets things like;
Economics. Inflation, GDP, Consumer Price Index, deflation, and interest rates
Medicine. Understanding the numbers behind the studies and why they are important.
Wars. Strategies, bombings, intelligence, and casualties
Science. If the breakthroughs are indeed breakthroughs, their significance, costs, data reliability, and etc.
Journalists are generally adept with language but terrible with analytical thinking, mathematics, and statistics. Even when they interview field experts, they tend to misunderstand what is being said. They'll make assumptions and inaccurately report findings.
Is there blatant lying resulting from political agendas, satisfying financial interests, and promoting obvious propaganda? Absolutely, but don't overlook the factors of overconfidence and arrogance from these people. They think they know everything. Listen to any one of them speak on either local or national news and watch how conceited they all are.
Also consider that news as a product is in competition with all other news industries, so it needs to be delivered as quickly as possible without time to verify all the information. This leads to the journalist writing a story based on assumptions which she/he knows that most regular people will devour without checking the sources of data for accuracy.