Media/1900 Crash
This type of reporting is SOP- even worse at local (parochial) levels, viz small town newspapers, 'eyewitness TV news and so on.
Recently here there was a fatal SE Turbine ac crash(Malibu or Mirage maybe). Immediately, local reporters, tv and print, reported Piper ac as being problematic (I assume they pulled accident/incident stats from public databases like AOPA, NTSB etc.)
Very few media organisations are interested in balanced, accurate reporting, particularly commercial ones, but in this case the Beeb stepped on it's d**k. Objectivity does not sell- sensationalism does. Public only has itself to blame (generalisation)- viz 'National Enquirer', 'The Sun' et al.
Don Henley had it right in his paean to the media- 'Dirty Laundry'(Can we film the operation.. Is the head dead yet ?....). Media types know they can get away with this type of fatuous speculation as it's only a small segment of their viewers/readers who know any better. This is not to say they shouldn't be called on it.