One crank theory I have is that prestige media is vastly overrated for how it impacts the electorate and that Harris and Walz are being incredibly savvy in ignoring it for local and new media, at the expense of Trump and JD who are both obsessed with prestige and elitism.

To refine this a bit, if they would get good (even defined just as substantive, reality based, or symmetrical) coverage from prestige media, they'd do well to engage it while also engaging local and new media. But with a media that treats the parties asymmetrically, better off ignoring it.