Even your example of the media covering train derailments happened in the wake of a railroad workers' union being forced by Congress to stop striking; when one of their big concerns was "These railroads are not safe and they need to be inspected more thoroughly/need major infrastructure upgrades."

So no you can't really divorce what's happening from the political climate it happens in. It would be like having Mehmet Oz going on live national TV and saying "We believe sunscreen causes skin cancer," and the following summer there's suddenly a large spike in melanoma cases, and then shrugging and saying "I can't conceive of why this is happening. There's always been melanoma cases in summer. This is just the media manufacturing closer attention."