It is an interesting world where Vanity Fair publishes diligent reporting that reveals troubling information on the origins of ongoing pandemic (they did it more than once[0]).
The reasons might be that it is unaffiliated with scientific community and the editors probably don’t care if they burn a few bridges (it’s not VF’s core topic)—other outlets might be worried of being excluded from information streams and inside scoops for inconvenient reporting that could cost some individuals a lot of money in future grants.
As a non-US resident I also feel like there is an unfortunate consequence of political positioning, where the range of viewpoints acceptable to be held by left- and right-aligned US media is seemingly narrowing (so a left-aligned editor would not want to publish something that counters the conventional bat origin theory, and a right-aligned editor may not want to give even more airtime to the problem of COVID that they may consider insignificant), while most media becomes left- or right-aligned.
On that note, it is possible VF’s research is also funded by somebody politically aligned in some way and thus interested in exploring this viewpoint. Not to say it is mutually exclusive with truth, from what I read VF’s points are consistent and well-supported.
Your analysis of US newsmedia is spot-on. I take it your own country's newsmedia are not suffering from this (at least as much)? What country would that be, if you don't mind me asking?
The reasons might be that it is unaffiliated with scientific community and the editors probably don’t care if they burn a few bridges (it’s not VF’s core topic)—other outlets might be worried of being excluded from information streams and inside scoops for inconvenient reporting that could cost some individuals a lot of money in future grants.
As a non-US resident I also feel like there is an unfortunate consequence of political positioning, where the range of viewpoints acceptable to be held by left- and right-aligned US media is seemingly narrowing (so a left-aligned editor would not want to publish something that counters the conventional bat origin theory, and a right-aligned editor may not want to give even more airtime to the problem of COVID that they may consider insignificant), while most media becomes left- or right-aligned.
On that note, it is possible VF’s research is also funded by somebody politically aligned in some way and thus interested in exploring this viewpoint. Not to say it is mutually exclusive with truth, from what I read VF’s points are consistent and well-supported.
[0] https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/06/the-lab-leak-theory-...
Edit: removed note mistakenly assuming TFA is from 2021.