The difference between "lie" and "falsehood" is, well, nothing

I was intrigued by the part in an interview with The Washington Post's Marty Baron, where he says (in reference to the Post's tracking of Donald Trump's 2,000 false or misleading statements during his first year in office): "We haven't called them lies, first of all. We've called them falsehoods and misleading statements."
A quick look at a dictionary reveals that a lie is in fact (and not surprisingly): "an inaccurate or false statement; a falsehood".
As a seasoned newspaper guy, I'm sure that Mr. Baron is just trying to cover himself against libel suits. But how is it less libellous to say "falsehood" instead of "lie"?