A very good point, and one not limited to the "third world." I once worked with a CWO whose favorite saying was: "Never underestimate the power of human stupidity."

Many, many, years ago I had to take a course in "crisis management." They emphasised the need to have one focal point (call it a "war room") that all information went into, and was the only place information (to the press, etc.) came out of. The reason was that if you did not do this, all sorts of people and information/misinformation would be going out willy-nilly making your management look incompetent (at best). What is even worse is that an incorrect report from one set of investigators could influence another set of investigators to go off in another direction with their own investigation, and lose time chasing a ghost. Control and dissemination of information is critical in the orderly analysis of such events. You do not want everyone relying on each others unconfirmed data.

I kind of feel the good folks in Malaysia are becoming a case study on how not to handle a crisis.

That does not mean that all the "conspiracy" theories are false, or unworthy of investigation (they are and must be eliminated based on facts, not opinion). Just that while you investigate the facts and develop theories based on these facts, you don't go around saying stuff that later turns out to be wrong, and thus jeopardize whatever credibility you had to start with and possibly send your own investigations in a false direction.