I've seen both programs that were chronicled in the last year, most recently on NBC last week with Brian Williams. From the reports, there appears to be evidence that the guns can fire with the safety engaged without the trigger being pulled. It involves millions of rifles and shotguns of which I'm currently an owner.
I practice safe gun handling at all times and don't trust any safety mechanism to be 100% safe, EVER! Anything made by man is going to break eventually. I've tried to get my shotgun to recreate this problem and cannot. I've removed the trigger control assembly, inspected it and made sure it was clean and properly lubricated.
Remington has reviewed hundreds of incidences and still considers the mechanism to be safe but has warnings in all of their manuals to NEVER rely on a safety mechanism.
It's sad that people have been injured or killed but in the cases they mentioned proper safety practices were ignored! One guy who's investigated this for years lost a son because his wife inadvertently swept the boy with the muzzle and the 700 she was using "accidentally" fired and killed him! A tragic loss for his family but, he still owns and shoots Remington rifles!
As Tom suggests, the media is reporting a story and it wouldn't be a story unless there was some drama involved.