The Press in particular has been irresponsible.
No doubt, CNN on one hand and Fox News on the other.
@TheMiddleWay Not sure about AP or UPI, but Reuters gives opinions too just like CNN and FOX, and in fact the other day came across an article about an editor at Reuters who got fedup with them for always taking sides and had to leave. At one point they did only report on the news minus opinion hit pieces, but not so much anymore. As for me, I stick to reason.com, they use less loaded words and any opinion pieces they do are marked as such, and they also have a high accuracy rating on reporting by independent factcheckers.
@TheMiddleWay Also, while I get the point you tried to make, sources like CNN and FOX are the Press as they do at least some of times report on just news events, so technically that could qualify them as such. That said, you are right though on the opinion pieces, which these days are more prevalent than actual news stories, but that still doesn't remove the fact they do do just news stories at times.
@TheMiddleWay No arguing on the percentages part there, a good portion of what they mention are indeed opinions.
News reported by libertarian sources, and yes there are opinion pieces as well. At least two independent factcheckers have rated Reason high in the reporting department, and I've noticed they don't use loaded language alot. Sometimes adding opinions is not always a bad thing, as the source they are criticizing may very well be pushing opinions themselves, and no one else is challenging their opinions, so good to see when Reason does challenge certain viewpoints. I've witnessed Reason question Trump and Biden, which shows they are willing to challenge both extremes, a good thing there. A shame sources like CNN and FOX don't do the same. I agree on the last part there, Reason doesn't get emotionally charged like the other mainstream ones, and yes you are correct in saying that virtually all of the sources out there are at least slightly biased in some way. The Libertarian Republic is another decent source that rates fairly high on the accuracy of reporting, but when they start in lecturing me on the "evils" of gays getting married and women getting abortions (among other social-based topics) etc I will be forced to politely ignore their emotionally-charged propaganda.
Well, this is somewhat right. If politics is to blame it will be due to poor handling and lack of action such as how Trump handled the initial outbreak in the U.S.
If the press is to blame then it will be the press that spreads misinformation and tries to politicize the pandemic such as Fox News and the multitude of garbage conspiracy theory websites.
As far as I can see, the only thing pharmaceutical companies did wrong concerning the pandemic is profiting from vaccine sales. Though shameful and deplorable, this likely didn't significantly affect the spread of the vaccine.
The pillars you are missing in the picture are ANTI-VAXXERS and MISINFORMATION/CONSPIRACY THEORIES. These have very likely done the most harm and will continue to keep the pandemic going until the majority of anti-vaxxers are dead. The anti-vaxxers are filling up hospitals and spreading Covid. Unvaccinated people are six times as likely to contract Covid.