It's a failed plan. It works on some but thanks to POTUS and their own failings, most don't' trust media to put out an unbiased poll or to report public opinion accurately.
Only political aware even read the news and most of those are jaded these days. So this is a failed strat. The only benefit would be to show distance between Mueller and POTUS or Sessions and POTUS for clean optics before a report release, firing, or indictment. But in these cases the media didn't make up the divide. They were fed it.