No, Pulitzer winning photos depicting death have been here since Nanking and maybe before.
you don't have to trust me on that, (I certainly wouldn't) :-)

I'm not suggesting that such photos have never been published before, I am remarking on prevalence. Perceived prevalence, even. There seems to be a bit of journo code in 70s 80s 90s whereby death images would not be shown other than in special circumstances. To me that seems to have changed.

The only special circumstances were when death images could not be obtained, and that wasn't very often. I cite the Pulitzer Prize because that is the ultimate example of world wide recognition, by no means a minority thing. Look up Nguyen Noc Loan, Kent State, MLK, Sharpesville, that's the downside to it; when people get hurt, t's news.

I recall a Guardian piece recently that argued that pictures of black, dead people were acceptable, and more prolific, in Western media (eg. the recent Nigerian terrorist attack) but not white people.

That would not surprise me.

So today's MH370 news is that a "concentration" of debris comprising less than 1 item/sq mile has been found. ..... I wonder if they realise that they're searching within the Indian Ocean garbage patch?

This is why they emphasized that it was "shiny" I think.

Apparently they're pretty sure now it was the capt. that did it as his missus had dumped him and his new missus was about to.

The theory seems to be that he programmed the autopilot, then committed suicide by taking the plane up to 45,000 ft. Which would seem to indicate he got the first officer out of the cockpit somehow, "go get me a drink".

I think that there are too many theories and too few strong facts to say anything.

Hijacking by a passenger I would find difficult to believe, because it's most likely impossible to bring a gun on board to overpower the pilot and the crew.

if they never found the plane, and the debris in the water turns out to be not from a plane, than I would guess, it was most likely theft, either plane, spare parts or cargo.

and then there is always the possibility of a mechanical error, and the crew/passengers suffocating and flying onwards over the ocean until they run out of fuel

I would rule out suicide, because in the case of suicide there is always a letter

I would also rule out terrorism, because no terrorist group has claimed any responsibility

Not always. Suicide is currently regarded as the likely explanation.

Er, 9/11 was accomplished without the use of guns!

With the number of 777's measured in hundreds, and the number of owners measured in dozens, thete is virtually no chance that you could find a customer for any detachable parts. Ransom would be the only likely way to turn the aircraft into cash, and while theoretically it could have reached Somalia, there is now adequate evidence that it did not head in that direction. If it had arrived there, a ransom demand would certainly have soon be made, and like the terrorist attack theory, no demand/ claim has been made, so that idea is now a non starter.
You're joking, right?

In the absence of facts, nobody has any idea what happened and any suppositions put forth to date are groundless.

Well I, and experts more worthy than I, are now convinced that MH370 was last traced on one of two arcs over Asia or the Indian Ocean. The countries in Asia, despite checking their radars in a fairly high-tension area over India, China, Burma, Thailand, Nepal, and several " 'Stans", in central Asia, have found no trace of an unidentified passenger jet in their airspace. This was independently corroborated by Doppler analysis of the "pings" received by the Inmarsat satellite, which proved it headed south from the point where Malaysian military radar last located it. Ergo, it was last tracked over the Indian Ocean with no chance for a safe landing, or even an on-land crash. It is somewhere "down there", though I suspect it may be years, perhaps many years, before it is found.

The next few weather 'windows' searchers have as winter closes in down there will probably be the last chances they get to find pieces. This search has to be the biggest ever, doesn't it?

In some sense already, yes, with so many countries involved. Whether it surpasses the search for AF447 remains to be seen, but if they don't find it soon I believe they (everyone with deep sea search capability) will use it as a test and training exercise for years to come, until it is found.

If you're interested go and Google <Indian Ocean garbage patch> and read the Wikipedia article. It will explain why the searchers are finding so many "items" and why it is likely that NONE of them have ANY connection to MH370!

Oh no there isn't