Local news stations get their agenda for their parent companies. They are told what to cover, what not to cover, and how to cover things to fit the overarching narrative from executives/producers.
Yes, see this post from earlier in the week. It is a youtube video in which dozens of local news stations repeat the exact same script.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27550122
In some cases, yes. But thats also a very small amount of outlets, and a small amount of all coverage.