Your headline would also only tell half of the story, because we don't know whose "ways" the administration rejected. They, the administration, spent time looking into something that they later concluded was wrong. Right?
WaPo's headline was in the past tense and doesn't state anything else, so obviously nothing went beyond exploring. It's not distorted at all.
I said nothing about not reporting. It's the distorted headlines laced with innuendo that are damaging.