Propaganda. You can trace this back to the old "propaganda model" that Chomsky described. More specifically, the phenomenon you mention has a name "The propaganda multiplier".

https://swprs.org/the-propaganda-multiplier/

Most of the "journalists" writing this stuff have never visited the area and are just repeating what other people have reported and giving it their own riff. They probably know some of it is bunk but believe there is something there, because "everyone else is writing about it". The news agencies are few, easy to control and always staffed with the right type of people who know what the real mission is. Real journalist today, can't earn a living in corporate news, they have to live on the margins, holding down other jobs or scrape by and they are constantly disparaged by mainstream media and the establishment.

All of this is by design, Capital has sought to exert control on populations since the printing press was invented, and they continue to refine their methods. The west has spent the better part of a century building this machine, journalism school functions as the first in a series of giant filters, either you accept that this is the way that things are done and you get a career or you find some other profession. Next comes corporate media, same test, will you repeat stuff you are almost 100% certain is wrong? good you passed, now you are in the running for a high profile spot in a news paper or as a talking head commentator. etc etc.