The OP is speaking specifically about inside of quote marks though. And I agree with op. Don’t go change me to [him] etc when me is already part of a sentence inside of quotation marks.

I agree with the OP, but journalists have a different priority from other writers of prose. Information accuracy is of paramount importance, with deviance from the original being important to highlight. The other thing they do, is use an ellipsis (…) to indicate excised text.

Another issue is that they are obliged to help their audience understand a topic, so paraphrasing, contextualizing, and clarifying are important.

Personally, I think that a quote should, indeed, be posted “whole,” but, if that is not done, then brackets (or something like it) should be used.

If it is posted “whole,” then it generally needs to have context established for the quote.

I prefer “whole,” myself, with context, but I am also rather...prolix. Journalists tend to put a premium on being concise. They usually have a word limit on articles.

It’s certainly not something I’m losing any sleep over. My mother was a scientific editor, and her bugaboo was dangling participles. That kind of thing can cause problems in scientific writing, but, in some cases, might make prose easier to read. I tend to "bend" the rules of "proper English," myself. It can be fun, watching pedant heads explode.

There was another link someone around here posted, where the author was complaining about how major news organizations were not posting their corrections in a visible manner.