I would only add the qualifier "currently" to your question.

Because a decade ago NY Times and CNN were actually paying for real reporters to go into the field and research things.

Now they've become popculture pushers, anything just to get eyeballs on their websites, though the NY Times still has some good pieces. CNN is long past gone however.

Even a decade ago, or 4 decades ago, I think there was a lot wrong with mainstream media. The disruption the internet is causing is revealing a lot of these problems more than actually causing them.