I was actually quite surprised by the amount of coverage given to it on "prime time" news. Lots of footage of the flight and no vox pops or random 'expert' asked biased or stupid questions, as seems par for the course these days. I'm sure it can't hurt on the donations front.
And I have to agree with previous posters about the "symbol of destruction" language - after all, it wasn't designed to drop flowers and little paper hearts on people. Symbol of destruction could refer accurately to either the bomber or the nukes.