I "worked" on the TMI incident, albeit at a distance, for about 6 months from the day of the accident. I was doing graphics and making PR materials for Westinghouse in response to media requests for expert comments. It was an honest effort at providing information, not PR spin.
My job was to attempt to translate highly technical information we were getting from the engineers that we sent to the site to assist GPU (and B&W) into graphic images to help the media understand what was happening.
To put it kindly, it was a fool's errand.
Your "hysterical talking-head" comment is if anything an understatement. What struck me most was the near total technical illiteracy of the media, especially the electronic media. I'd be willing to bet that not one in ten of the talking heads could tell you what the boiling point of water was, let alone what was happening inside the TMI reactor.
The biggest mistake the nuclear industry in general made through that experience was assuming that the media was staffed with rational, educated people who were interested in facts. Nothing could be further from the truth. They wanted headlines, the bloodier the better, and did not give a damn about reality.
I was still a relatively young pup then, but my lesson from TMI had nothing to do with nuclear engineering. It was was to never believe the media without independent confirmation.
Perhaps that's why I'm a Freeper today.