The pilot who acts as on air reporter is much more widespread than you think. Helinet alone have about 5 or 6 of their operations that are a combined operation, with some of these in such built up places as Los Angeles, where its an insane place to fly in at the best of times. On one fire operation I had the chance to go on there were a total of eighteen helicopters in a relatively small airspace. For those who know LA it was around the Pepperdine Uni at Malibu. There were five fire fighting helos, LA County Sheriff, LAPD, Chuck Street in his Mountain Dew 206B and every other TV and radio station you could think of, plus helos that the newspapers that hired helos to get shots.
The other thing with pilot/reporters is that the equipment on these helos has got so sophisticated they need a Bach of Arts degree to work it. Next time you are at Van Nuys or Teteboro have a look inside one of these helos, they are jam packed with equipment, the cameraman in the back has what looks like a portable studio with him, and the pilot of these helos is expected to know how it all works, talk about pressure.
This accident wasnt an if it was going to happen, it was "when". Condolences to all involved and maybe its about time the pilot role was divorced from the reporter, maybe like the pilot of an EMS helo is seperated from what goes in in the back and its his job to make sure the number of landings equals the number of take offs.
Just my 0.2cents worth.