That might well be the justification of it, but there is no mention of "media" or "reporting" in that headline: a headline that does not include in it the supposed subject matter is a poor headline indeed.
You need to cough up some pretty extraordinary evidence for the claim that the editor writing that headline would not be aware that it is misleading to leave out the subject entirely.
The word "hype" inherently refers to what people are saying about something, not the thing itself. The issue is about what people are saying. The headline wasn't "Forget about the Amazon fires", because it was talking about the hype not the fires. What headline would you use instead?
You need to cough up some pretty extraordinary evidence for the claim that the editor writing that headline would not be aware that it is misleading to leave out the subject entirely.