There are maverick democrats, tulsi gabard, Yang and sanders off the top of my head.
There is no more independent media. All the media does is try their hardest to push what narrative benefits their parties interests. Republicans have caught up democrats no longer have any real media advantage.
What the media does is follow the New York Times in this order: NYTimes to large newspapers and large networks to local papers and local channels to to all the little guys.