It's a very bad situation made worse by tabloid media coverage both here and abroad. In other words, it's not as bad as the media makes it out, but things are still pretty damned rotten.

I can't see how tabloid coverage would make things worse, even if it made out "a very bad situation" to be even worse than it is. In fact if "things are still pretty damned rotten" unfavourable publicity, even exaggerated, could surely help to make things better, and that's what matters.

In this country there has been very little tabloid coverage of all this, and I suspect that is even more the case in most other countries. My impression has been that that has generally been true in the States as well - if I'm wrong I'd see that as something to welcome.