The reason why the Media paid so much attention to John was because he was marketable and likeable by the general public. He had that charisma about him that is portrayed in movies such as Goodfellas, which is popular for a reason. Simply put, he made a Mob boss cool to follow. He had good looks, dressed really well and just had that IT factor. Guys like the Chin were ugly as fuck and not marketable. Lets be honest, most mob bosses do not look like Hollywood movie stars but John did. That is why he was who he was.
Americans have been fascinated--obsessed--with outlaws going back to the 19th Century, and the media have played on that obsession by romanticizing outlaws as "Robin Hoods," "folk heroes," "on the side of the poor and downtrodden," etc. Their attention made heroes of Billy the Kid (a serial killer who murdered 20 men before his 21st birthday), Jesse James (a sadist, terrorist and torturer) and Butch Cassidy (a fraud).
Some gangsters are flattered by the attention paid to them by mass media--and have been undone by the publicity they got. John Dillinger and Al Capone flaunted their notoriety, and so, to an extent, did Gotti. They publicly thumbed their noses at The Law, which made The Law that much more determined to nail their asses. The successful mobsters always kept low profiles.
