I say, privately owned news stations report in such ways to get people to keep watching in order to keep the ad revenue coming and that ad revenue is how they keep the lights on. I personally feel that informing people for profit is a conflict of interest.

I kinda hate to say this, but I don't think either of those are the news media's job. In a pure, stripped-down, purist sense, it's there for information. How people react to that is their own responsibility. Switching from scares to consolation is just swapping out one impurity for another, not that true faultless objectivity is really possible.