Even if that were true, you know what would make them not look bad? Doing the right thing in the first place.
EDIT:
Think about this from the reverse perspective: If you wanted to maximize your chances at success, it’s better to maximize the potential cost to businesses and governments for not listening to you.
The perspective of “You’re making us look bad by… showing the ways we’re not doing good.” Is a really backwards, elite-oriented way of understanding politics. Politicians are in theory supposed to serve the people, not the other way around.
Yeah. It’s not hard to see why people don’t trust the media anymore. Amongst other things, the big ones I can think about in my life: They uncritically parroted lies the government used to justify the Iraq War and they regularly gave equal air time/consideration to climate deniers as though they were equivalent to climate scientists.