95% of all statistics are made up. It's very easy to make up data or confuse people with bad statistical treatment, but most science reporters / news media don't bother, they just honestly misunderstand the source data instead. If you can't check the statistical technique in detail yourself, and you don't very highly trust the source to do so (hint: news media are almost never trustworthy), you should ignore any statistical claims as being basically uncorrelated with reality.