I believe it is an established maxim in morals that he who makes an assertion without knowing whether it is true or false, is guilty of falsehood . . . .
This has long been my take, especially with respect to those who proudly wear the journalist cap and tell me that it's their job to be superhuman truth tellers and who adopt the authority of their respected news outlets as their own.
That isn't to say that every "stupid thing that comes out of someone's mouth on live tv" is actually a lie, but it's wrong to simply forgive them all as "mistakes."