That was likely true a long time ago, but it is not today. Most dictionaries, mine included, cite media as being both a plural AND a single noun, and the single noun has a number of definitions.
The OP is wrong. Every decent dictionary cites “media” as both singular and plural, depending on the definition in use. In the context the OP is complaining about - the mass of communications outlets including television, radio, and regular print - it is a singular noun and has been used that way for quite a long time.
Collective nouns are perfectly acceptable in English, and are grammatically treated as singulars in American (and Canadian) English, as you, an American, should know. If you are like 99.999% of your countrymen, you very likely say “the data leads me to this conclusion,” treating it as a singular, not “the data lead me to this conclusion,” even though data was originally a plural in Latin. “Stamina” is another example; that used to be a plural, too. “Data” has now taken on the sense of a collective singular. “Media” is like that now. In some contexts.
We’re speaking English, not Latin. Nothing wrong with changing some words to suit our uses, and this isn’t a recent change.
By your standards around “media,” you’re contradicting yourself. Originally, “agenda” was a plural, “agendum” the singular, and “agendas” was not a word at all. “Agenda” became a singular simply because it makes sense to use it that way.
I agree that misuse doesn’t make something okay, but there’s a reason “media” has found purchase as a singular; it’s not illiteracy, it’s something done by a sort of design. Using “literally” as an intensifier is stupid because there’s just no reason to do it; it serves no purpose, and it probably won’t last (although it might; lots of words we use now have completely different meanings than they used to.) But “Media” as a singular to describe TV, radio et al. is quite useful as a collective noun. It had a distinct meaning apart from a simple plural of “medium.”