I probably should have disclosed that I work in the media.. but i don't cover anything related to travel (I wish, that would be a sweet gig

I suppose I have covered aviation on very rare occasions (airplane crashes). That's where reporters can be at their worst...

I was a police reporter at the Detroit Free Press when TWA 800 crashed, there were 2 Detroiters on the plane. So they sent me out to Oakland County, where one of the families lived, and told me to camp out in their front yard (with crews from 4 TV stations) and knock on their door every hour until they talked to us.

This teenage girl kept answer the door in tears (it had been less than 24 hrs since the crash that killed her parents). Anyway, the TV reporters just had to get that girl crying on camera, and they used all the tricks when she opened the front door ("tell us about your parents, we've heard they were wonderful peoeple and we want to show our viewers that side of them" and "maybe it will make you feel better to talk about it," etc., etc.)

And the Free Press photographer who was with me was like "man, we are such vultures." This was local media - in a very competetive market, granted - but I can imagine the pressure to "get the story" is much greater on a national level.

I haven't been involved in any of the Sept. 11 coverage but maybe that was an exception, I don't know. I would guess that reporters were a tad gentler (but not out of the goodness of their hearts. Only because they had to show some compassion for political reasons - they couldn't descend on the victims like vulture so much because that would be incredibly bad PR)

Disclaimer: I think people who work for niche media and speciality publications for specific industries - that sort of thing - have higher ethical standards than reporters at mainstream national media organizations.