I have run into this throughout my military career. Writers throw terms around casually that have very exact meanings. They don't care what the results are, in fact they like the notoriety, no matter who is hurt or great harm is done.

Luckily, as a whole, they tend to be very lazy. If you give them interesting releases they usually us it intact with no attribution. However, when writing about the past, they have to do "research" and their natural tendencies show through.