Every device that uses a lithium ion battery has a chance of exploding, iPhones, Galaxys, Nexus' - all of them. All manner of devices explode all the time for a multitude of reasons.
What sets the Note 7 apart is the frequency it's happening per unit sold, it's thousands of times more frequent than any other device, hence the recall. It's just basic statistics.
If MR decided to report on every time a phone exploded there'd be an article a day, that's why they don't do it. Nothing to do with "masking Apple problems".