"The media" is like "The military", "Academia", and "Experts". No one is seriously accusing any of them for acting in concert. I certainly am not. You know that. That some media outlets have done a better job then others ignores the fact the majority of the most visible and often respected outlets have done a shitty job. Anything else is filed under "the exception that proves the rule", as in, as a rule, the media have neglected to report facts, and data in a truly meaningful way, usually reporting worse case and the raw numbers simply because they are large and scary. What is the purpose of a television shot of an empty street in LA with ominous music playing if not to generate fear. I have seen shots like that many times in the last week or 10 days.
The media does not have to coordinate like some cabal. THE media has been reduced to barely a dozen major outlets with maybe six considered a go to source of record. It is like an echo chamber. One paper writes something, gets picked up by wire service and repeated all over the world with no independent research or verification and just minor edit. TV news is no different. They report some other network's report. Most reporters are lazy or complicit. Why doesn't anyone at a briefing ever ask exactly what the death rate is per 100,00 when the briefer drops a large raw number? Why no reports of the percent national death that have occurred in NYC and just across the river? Why doesn't anyone ask what the relevance is that our total deaths is higher than Italy's? Why hasn't any major outlet asked or reported what the mortality rate is among women under 35, what the likelihood a woman under 35 will even get infected? I think that number would alleviate some people's fears. But no one is interested in reporting news that makes people less fearful or better informed. Lots of numbers/analysis out there that is more useful and relevant than is reported. Much of it good news. But it isn't reported on CBS nightly news or in WAPO. If a reporter does not ask those questions or reports meaningless raw numbers then he is an idiot, lazy or has an agenda. If you were told that four EP-3s flew into the ground over it's fleet wide use, you would have several questions to determine exactly what that number meant.
It matters little that the data or answers to my rhetoricals can be found, or were reported, if they are buried in the inter webs and take research. So don't bother. I don't care how strong your google-fu is. I know your research is better than most people out there. People watch and read the news because they want to be reliably informed without having to crunch the numbers themselves or go looking for it. For every person that goes onto the web looking for more useful information because they don't get it from Fox News or the LA Times you will get ten that find bull crap, and that will be their news.
If there is a problem with referring to the media as an aggregate, then lets not be rolling out the EXPERTS as a homogenous group of infallibles that must be trusted. I say, pick your expert carefully. If all experts held the same opinion, there would never be opposing articles in peer reviewed publications. There would be no debates at conferences. Oh, but the consensuses. The majority I hear. Well, the majority has been wrong before, and being right can be fleeting. At the outset of this pandemic there were authoritative scientific voices saying not to worry. The President relied on that as did some governors and many leaders world wide. It certainly appears they were wrong to listen to that advice. But it was the opinion of many experts all the same. Experts do not all share the same opinion on many issues. One side is right. The other not. I don't know why I must believe the experts that are getting the press, or happen to be employed in a certain position, or went to an impressive school. I'll find an expert who disagrees and do my best to figure out which one I want to trust. Should I not do some research and get a second opinion when my personal medical expert, a doctor, tells me I need major invasive surgery?
Extra credit if you find it reported in that way in a major newspaper or on TV. Not likely, because we don't trust what the peeps will do if they don't think they will die, or make someone die, if they aren't wearing a mask when walking a trail in the woods by themselves or driving alone in a car.