Media bias has always been a problem, but I find it particularly brazen with regard to Covid. They do this partly for sensationalism, partly to responsibly promote behaviors they believe are beneficial, and occasionally out of partisanship. Here are a few examples.
Flattening the curve
Remember "flattening the curve"? The idea was to suppress the spread of the virus so that the health care system is not overwhelmed by simultaneous patients. Ideally you engineer social restrictions so that ICU beds are near but below 100% capacity until herd immunity takes over. The media loved this because it promoted correct behavior. But we don't hear this much anymore. That's because most locales are now at the far end of that curve, and the media does not want people to ease up on social distancing.
Log log plots
For a while, the media switched to log-log curves. They are really the same data, but they exaggerate the plunge when the curve starts downwards. This made the US look really bad compared to some other countries, encouraging social distancing. But when countries such as Australia started a second wave of infections, it ruined the effect.
Cases vs deaths
Here are graphs from google of cases over time and deaths over time. Notice cases are way up and deaths are way down. That's because there are 90 times as many tests available. Cases are a meaningless statistic. But they continue to be reported as a "resurgence".
Case fatality ratios
Early on the media would report dramatic "case fatality ratios". You can read them off of the google graphs above. They started around 10% and are now closer to 2%. Because it uses case numbers, it's another meaningless statistic. The interesting part is, the media doesn't report this statistic anymore. I wonder why.
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