In order to understand the "don't worry about coronavirus, worry about the flu" coverage, you have to understand that there will be virtually no consequences for the press for getting this wrong, and plausibly some "we told you so" cred otherwise

Listen to the NYT Daily podcast ep titled "The Lessons of 2016." These people still somehow think that Trump was some sort of probablistic abnormality, a long shot they could not possibly have seen coming. There's zero sense of responsibility re: predictive accuracy

This is subtle but important: the media holds itself accountable for having *a good story about why it said what it said,* not for accuracy or a strong record of prediction.