The axe I have to grind with this whole BA/VS Facebook affair is that if the people involved worked in another industry it would barely merit a mention anywhere. Let's say some Virgin Media staff had a Facebook page claiming that their set-top boxes (or whatever they flog) were likely to combust and that their satellite dishes enhanced the stone cladding on their customer's council houses. Or British Gas engineers made similar disparaging remarks about their customers and company's equipment, would they lose their jobs and/or provoke a media outcry? I don't think they would.
You might be surprised. Big company A is as good a news story as Big company B, and the news world (much as we may think otherwise) doesn't resolve solely around aviation.
As someone else mentioned, most contracts (including most I've ever had) have clauses about not bringing the company into disrepute, which is clearly what happened here.
I've very little sympathy for anyone of those involved in these two incidents to be honest.