The majority of adults in the US get their news from widely diverse sources found on social media and subscribed emails and podcasts. The message is not coordinated or predictable in my opinion.The media will twist every ounce of what is being said and give you some worst case scenario that will try to scare everyone and bring on "experts" to help drive it home.
Also, Fauci and medical experts are going to lean on the side of caution vs. giving you what they really think on the matter, because if they predict 100,000 deaths and it comes out at 200,000 they will be crucified. If they tell you 500,000 and it comes back 100,000 then it is still bad but people won't go nuts.
The tough part about any new virus threat is that if protective measures are successful and a threat is minimized or contained, the village idiots will always emerge from the tall weeds to exclaim what a waste of time the entire thing was.
I haven't heard anyone from the NYC area complaining about media scare tactics. I think that narrative comes from regions that haven't been hit hard yet.