To take some liberties on Churchill, "Lithium batteries are perhaps the worst form of rechargeable battery we've come up with. Except for all the others we have tried."
The issues that result in headlines are due to manufacturing defects or extenuating circumstances; Poor manufacturing of any battery is going to result in complications. NiCad batteries for example will explode just like Li-Ion batteries- even more destructively, in some cases - if overcharged.
Fact of the matter is that the "Nightly news" works by reporting grim stories and bad things, with maybe a 5 minute human interest story as a "positive". The top story isn't going to be "Lithium Ion Battery doesn't explode, causes no injuries" or "black man pulled over by police is let off with a warning for his excess speed" even though both occur with far more frequency than the events than are actually reported, which is WHY those events are worth reporting. Don't take events being reported as those events being established as "normal" because if they were normal, they wouldn't be reported on.
In the 90's there were similar doomsday headlines about the Apple Powerbook batteries- which were NiCad's- when there were a few reports of them exploding.
As far as causing death, the only deaths that could be said to in any way be caused by Lithium Ion batteries are cases where say somebody leaves a laptop under blankets or on a couch with poor ventilation and it overheats and the battery catches fire and burns down the house. Those are unfortunate mistakes made by victims and aren't an inherent "flaw" with Lithium Ion or Lithium Polymer batteries; batteries in general all have their own risk of fire or other damage. It's like getting sensational about Hilroy paper because if you leave clusters of it near an open flame, it can start a fire, and that we must stop using paper.
