I believe the reporter should have verifified the person's title and understood the difference between a conductor and engineer, but reporters are not as stupid as some of you think.

They have to cover all kinds of stories and can't be experts in every field. Also because of industry downsizing there are fewer editors and fact checkers to catch those errors. Most reporters especially those in radio and TV have to cover several stories a day and can't spend the whole day at one event learning every detail. They also have to spend part of the day traveling to and from an event, editing the interview and producing it.

In the "old days" there where more specialists like transportation reporters, medical reporters, legal, etc. who could focus on that one area and really get to know it so they made fewer mistakes. Now, everybody is a generalist so they learn as they go along which isn't an ideal situation.