Johnny,
I suspect one of the main issues with the media is that there appears to be a lack of knowledge and a lack of research and in this day & age, that is inexcuseable.
For example, one reads of stories of an aircraft in a death-dive with the crew grimly wrestling with the controls, narrowly missing a school / orphanage / nunnery (your choice) with passengers all fearing they're gonna die, when what actually happened was a controlled in-flight engine shut-down with a straight-in approach (ie. no holding) and uneventful landing after declaring a PAN.
Or the wrong type of aircraft gets shown on TV after a return to Adelaide.
I realise there are deadlines, but how long does it take to look at the Qantas website, see from the timetable or flight-status screen that QF692 was a 767 and then put a photo of a 767 and not a 737 on the TV? All of about 15 seconds? So why did Ch.7 put a 737 up?! Because they could not be bothered checking the facts and making sure they had it right.
Can you imagine the outcome if pilots routinely ignored easily-confirmable facts? Then you and your colleagues would really have something to report on.
It's not just with respect to aviation where journalism fails. This is basic research and factual reporting I am referring to. The failure to cary this out is why people just don't trust the press any more.
I personally do have a degree of respect for you admitting your profession here and there are journos I do respect, but certainly no longer as a class.