Because Israel has a complete ban on reporters in Gaza, for example, there’s no way to corroborate or refute what Israel said. It’s newsworthy to repeat what Israel said, but you can’t blame the media when someone reads that and assumes that the government is telling the truth

If there's no way to corroborate or refute what Israel said, don't print what Israel said. Lies aren't newsworthy, except as a way to report on the lies themselves for the purpose of debunking them.

Remember when Israel first started bombing hospitals and blamed Islamic Jihad for it? They still don't claim responsibility for Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, but after a year of targeting hospitals and doctors it's ridiculous to deny it at this point.

Yet there were few retractions or corrections. As far as CNN and The Guardian are concerned, Israel didn't bomb that hospital. What a joke.

As you said yourself, the government lies all the time, so why would you assume that “the government said X happened” means that “X happened”.

I don't think people make that assumption anymore, but that's because people stopped trusting the media. They published and promoted so many government lies that they've destroyed their own credibility.

People expect the media to investigate government claims and to publish the truth, not just parrot the lies they're fed. When the media doesn't do that, when all the major news outlets become court stenographers, people lose faith in the media.

Maybe people are expecting too much, but that's what people have been taught to expect. They were taught that journalists find the truth and report on it. They're finding out that journalists basically just print what their sources say and they can't just trust things because they're in the news anymore.

And it's going to get worse forever.