More journalistic delirium about the Lidle crash

Must have been a slow news day in NYC - so the Times decided to pull a
sensation piece out of the drawer to take up some column space. It begins
like this :
NEW YORK - From the windows that usually provide sweeping views of
Manhattan in his 27th floor condominium, Gene Weisberger saw flaming
debris - and on the street below, a crowd gaping upward.

It continues with the plight of the Wiesbergers, and the fact they had
not been evacuated, but told by firefighters to just stay put.

"We felt so alone," he said. Some, like the Weisbergers, have questioned
emergency protocols. They claim a building employee and at least one
firefighter told them to stay put.After several minutes of uncertainty,
Gene decided they should flee down a narrow stairwell despite some
serious handicaps: He had a severe back condition after a decade of
fighting cancer; Lila had a chronically bad hip and was barely on her
feet after recent knee replacement. They said each step was excruciating.
Lila said she willed herself to get out of the apartment by repeating a
line from the poem "The Summer Day" by Mary Oliver: "Tell me, what is it
you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"

Well, I'm glad the poem helped, but certainly the fact that they were
never in any significant danger may have also played a role!

I'm not criticizing them - I can imagine they were scared, but the
journalist should be reprimanded for manipulation and exploitation -
certainly they were told to stay put because the professionals at the
scene understood the danger they faced was far less than what they would
incur by trying to flee, given their physical condition. That they chose
to ignore this advice is not something to be held against them, but
one cannot in fairness say they were given incorrect advice, and they
certainly put themselves at greater risk by ignoring the professionals'
advice.

But all low-blows are permitted when there's an opportunity to slam
general aviation in the interest of selling some copy.