I have watched the media's handling of this scandal, the Tattoo scandal, Duke's lacrosse scandal, the UNC academic scandal, and all of the #metoo scandals. One thing is clear--the journalists have changed from reporters to commentators. In their quest to be the Woodward and Bernstein, they no longer report facts but instead, start with a narrative in mind (or follow the originator of the narrative) and then collect "facts" around that narrative. If information comes to light that questions the narrative, they attack that information or pivot slightly off the narrative.  

The story of Zac Smith is a prime example. The assumption is that he is a serial abuser. He has never been charged, let alone convicted of a crime, but he is labeled an abuser anyway. From that, Coach Meyer is labeled an enabler and it is pushed that Meyer should be fired because he didn't fire Smith based on the allegations. You don't hear from the self-righteous media that the police investigated multiple times. You don't hear anyone question Courtney Smith's story. And when stories come out contradicting CS, the media pivots to how awful a person ZS is and how UM should have fired him even anyway. 

The Tattoo Five narrative was that is was the biggest scandal in college football history and OSU needed the death penalty. Years later, the same media had no issue with Cam Newton and though players should be paid. Duke's narrative was spoiled white frat boys raped a helpless woman. After dragging the players, the team, the coach, and the University through the mud, over and over, they barely reported when the accuser's story was proven false. UNC's narrative was that the University created fake classes where no work was done to help athletes stay eligible and went on for 25 years. In actuality, none of that was correct. The media was silent on those findings. UNC had academic issues but the misconduct was inflated by an academic adviser looking to sell a story and retold by journalists who wanted to be at the forefront of another scandal or had an axe to grind. The narrative on the #metoo scandal is that the accused is guilty even if proven innocent (if male) and no female accuser's story can be questioned. In reality, the movement is a positive one as too much has been allowed for too long however no one should ever be considered guilty until proven such. 

The reason no one trusts the media is they see the story defined and written (ie narrative is created) before the facts come out. If we don't see a complete revival of Edward R Murrow-style reporting, the media will be less trusted than Congress. The lesson here is to never believe what is said in the media without checking multiple, disparate sources, even if they report something bad about Michigan. 

(Mod Edit: Topic being what it is- moved to Anything Else Forum.)