Subjective opinion
Your entire argument that the media's reporting is created in a vacuum is based on one unsupported assumption:
Listen to the people who are over there doing something, not staying in a hotel and sending out dispatches.
You don't know that, and if you grant the possibility that the journalists are doing the job they're paid for and going outdoors to dig up interesting stories, then the imbalance you assume disappears. Journalism is fiercely competitive, and career advancement and awards go to the journalists who break news and write interesting stories. What in the world would be the incentive for a journalist to just sit around a hotel and recycle press releases or even make things up?
You'll answer that it's a malicious desire to damage the US, but that too is an unsupported assumption, a priori reasoning working backward from reports you don't want to believe.
BTW, how do you explain pictures and video of venues other than hotel rooms? Faked?
If you're telepathic, Tom, what am I thinking right now?