Agreed, I think it's institutional. Particularly, the reporters at the big news firms come from privileged backgrounds, are biased towards their own, and use the access that comes with their privilege to further their careers. Those who come from modest backgrounds aspire to join the ranks of the privileged, necessary to further their careers, by sucking up to those above them. "Access journalism" intrinsically favors privileged journalists and incentivizes journalists from less fortunate backgrounds to play along.