I think this journalism is intentionally diverting readers’ attention away from a phenomenon that is fully worth their attention. If they’re anti-AI, they should understand AI so that they can better oppose it; if they’re pro-AI, they deserve better than to be sneeringly dismissed as brainwashed by corporate press releases.
Kelsey Piper, who continues to be the best person writing about AI today, takes on the majority of journalism about AI, which is quite poor. Specifically, many high-profile journalists at publications like The Atlantic and The New Yorker seem to be very invested in either decrying that AI is fake and a hoax or quibbling over whether it is truly "thinking" or not, instead of grappling with the very real effects AI is having on society and the economy.