on peer pressure

This would be hilarious if it weren't so sad:

MEDICINE HAT/630 CHED - The mother of a 23-year-old man accused of killing his 12-year-old girlfriend's parents and brother has spoken out.

Forty-three-year-old Jacqueline May says her son, Jeremy Allan Steinke, is a kind, loving person but says he is prone to peer pressure.[emphasis added]

Steinke and the girl, who cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, are charged with three counts of first-degree murder.

They are accused of killing a 42-year-old man, his 48-year-old wife and their eight-year-old son in the family's Medicine Hat home.

I understand though why she is saying this. What I don't understand is why the media feel obligated to report such nonsense. Isn't that patently obvious that a relative, especially the mother, would rarely say anything bad about the accused, regardless of the gravity of the crime.