Bob Builder,
You ask us pilots to get real? I guess most of us are clinging to a sort of "unbiased, well-informed and objective view" that journalists are supposed to have. Nowadays, the more sensation you can get, the better. Of course it sounds better to have a headline that says "Forced landing for Burning plane" than "Aircraft has tailstrike and returns to airport safely". Who of the general public would read the story with the latter headline? Plus, a story like that would instantly be moved 10 pages back in the newspaper.
Since nowadays, there are so many competing news sources (papers, television, internet), each one is trying to nudge ahead of the competition by sensationalizing news. No shock there, my country's most popular newspaper's news reporting level is almost at the level of the tabloids: way overdone and many times not even correct.
In our case, journalists do their (albeit small) part in making our industry fare a bit worse. Yes, you're reading it correctly, journalists help screw up the airline industry. These stupid stories make people afraid of flying and join anti-aviation activist groups at worst and make people think the aviation industry is worrisome at best. NEVER do I read about the great job the pilots, ATC, ground resources do when they bring a bad situation to a good ending. NEVER do I read a story where the reader is given the impression that even though something goes wrong, rest assured that you'll make it back in one piece. Because that sort of reporting is dull and boring.
So let us have our fit when over-sensationalized journo crap like this comes out.
Newswatcher,
Although I don't fly wide bodies, I fly 757-200's which are long tubes as well and are at risk of tail strikes during takeoff and landing. Although some aircraft have a sensor that will give you a message in the cockpit or a spring that will even absorb some of the energy should the tail (almost or entirely) hit the asphalt, there are no systems that warn you in advance if your rotation rate is too high (as far as I know).
Tail clearance during a fully standard takeoff for a 757-200 is just 84cm (33in), for a 757-300 it's 66cm (26in) and for a 767-300 it's 61cm (21in). So imagine that giant piece of metal blasting down the runway at almost 300 km/h with just that little clearance between the tail and the ground.