Golf-Mike-Mike, very possible the media is confusing the aircraft-mounted ELTs with the portable ones in the cabin. Most are designed to float while tethered to a slide raft and many of those models have a water activation mode... the older style was such that to use it on land you needed to use dirty water or urine in a bag and stand the beacon in it... needless to say the newer ones are much easier to use....
SLFJB- what you describe would be consistent with a 3-pilot crew, I wouldn't think any 2-pilot crew would take rest like that (with one outside the cabin) In my experience it'd be one captain 2 f/os unless a training sector where it may be 2 captains one f/o, so if one did rest in the cabin there'd still be 2 pilots up front