play loose with = play fast and loose with?

[thedaffodils]

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The spokesman who defended President Bush's policies through Hurricane Katrina and the early years of the Iraq war is now blasting his former employers, saying the Bush administration became mired in propaganda and political spin and at times played loose with the truth.

Hello!

Q1: play loose with = play fast and loose with?

Q2: If Q1 is correct, why didn't the journalist use " play fast and loose with" but " play loose with" in his report?

Thank you!

[Anglika]

Fast and loose would be the usual phrase.

Who can say why a journalist does something! Either he/she got it wrong or was too lazy to use the full phrase, or feels that the phrase used expresses what he/she wanted to say.

[thedaffodils]

Thank you, Anglika! I just learned the idiom " play fast and loose with" via search of Google.

Have a good day!