Most people don't think newspaper reports reflect the reality of events they have first hand knowledge of. I used to say that if seven people see a road accident they will all give different accounts of what they saw to the police, but none of them is deliberately lying. But that said, sometimes you have to wonder about how much reliance to put on eyewitnesses. Years ago one of my pals' big brothers drove into the back of another car on at some traffic lights on a cobbled stretch of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh. The brother was clean cut and well spoken. An prim old lady, possibly from Morningside, who saw the crash told the police that the brother had been rear ended himself and that was why he hit the car stopped at the lights. The car which she alleged was responsible was an old banger driven by a grungy looking hippy type. Luckily for the hippy, the  brother readily admitted to the police that he was blame.