Newsrooms that rushed to report tax refunds were smaller this year go silent on IRS data showing refunds have increased

Newsrooms that rushed to report tax refunds were smaller this year go silent on IRS data showing refunds have increased
"Tax refunds have increased by 1.3 percent from last year following the fourth week of the 2019 filing season, according to new Internal Revenue Service data.

...Oddly enough, certain newsrooms have responded to this development with total silence. 

I say “odd” because it was just a few weeks ago that these same newsrooms covered the initial filing data, which showed the average tax refund this year has been smaller than in 2018. 

These news organizations also suggested (both implicitly and explicitly) that the decrease is tied to the Republican Party’s tax reform bill

“Millions of Americans could be stunned as their tax refunds shrink,” read a headline published on Feb. 10 by the Washington Post. 

• The story reported, "Many Americans may confuse their meager refunds as a sign that they paid more in taxes as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Generally, that is not true." 
• On Feb. 14, the Post ran a story titled, “IRS says average tax refund is down nearly 9 percent so far this year.”
• That story included a line that reads, "Many early filers are still upset about getting a smaller refund or unexpectedly owing money, even if they did pay lower taxes overall as a result of the Republican tax bill that passed in December 2017."..."

...If the first round of refund numbers was enough to spark a feeding frenzy of media coverage suggesting tax-cut were to blame, why aren't these same newsrooms jumping all over these new IRS figures with similarly premature analysis?
And why did newsrooms even bother to cover the average figures (as opposed to the median) in the first place?
I think we can guess why.
I just want to hear them say it."
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