The first rule of rhetoric is that _all human interaction is rhetorical_. Most people are just so bad at it, that they wield it poorly, can't recognize when someone else uses it, and/or live in a state of constant paranoia that *everything is a psyop*.

This is simply how humans communicate, as adding interpretation, structure, prioritization, etc. to a data set is what turns it into information. And information is what is valuable, not raw data. Humans can only consume data in relation to something else, and journalists are paid to explain to us what these relationships are. They are a specialized type of data analyst.

Well, they are a data analyst, if they are true to their profession. If they are adding more interpretation than the data allows, or skipping the data and just spouting unfounded opinions, then they are activists, politicians, or propagandists. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it's also not journalism.