This incident really makes those of us in the TV news industry angry, too. Not only is it bad
PR for the business--we fly over neighborhoods everyday and people fear the thought that a hunk of metal could rain down on them in THEIR town--but it also encourages the government to get involved in regulating the industry.
TV news flying is risky enough and pilots have enough legit accidents without having a pilot trying to do an unapproved, obviously unsafe move like that and taking two lives in the process. (And even if he hadn't crashed, did the pilot just assume no one would notice his aerobatics over a populated area?)
It was rumored early on in the investigation that this was no accident or failure; the pilot's reputation began to surface.
Why no one said anything before...we'll never know.