Have to agree with Kalium, for once it would be nice to see a thread where people don't immediately jump on every technical mistake the media makes. They are not aviation experts, they are journalists doing their job. I don't think anyone here would like it if they were experts. They have a job to report the news and they do it, they are laymen reporting to a layman public so don't expect them to get everything right. Furthermore speculation is part of every breaking news item whether lives have been lost or not. The consumer (including all of us) wants 24 hour visual news and that is the service the media provides.
And, I don't see why as some seem to think aviation should be exempted by the media for showing close-up scenes of accident sites. The accident happened and part of the reporting is viewing the scene, I don't think this is ghoulish or moronic. Anyway, if god forbid someone close to me was lost in an air crash I would want to see the scene on the TV as soon as I could.
I am sure those who complained about the close ups do not avert their eyes when other disasters are reported on the TV news, so why should aviation be any different?
Sorry to divert this sad thread off the point but I felt the above points needed to be made.
Condolences to the families.