And each one of your questions but the last is an unqualified yes. The last one must remain a qualified yes. I agree that for most, its to sensationalize a very bad event...for some its not...and for reasons that have been well debated here surrounding the difference between yesterday's news and today's journalism.
It remains very dependent in todays environment, to yours and nother's point, of identifying where it is that you are seeing the stories and even now beyond the where into the when. Prime time, for example, on the 24hr "news" networks is actually not where you want to be for news.