If the LM had tipped over while landing, I imagine Buzz Aldrin would have just gotten out and punched it upright. 
What difference would that make. I’m sure that our new insect overlords would simply turn the transmitter back on in order to taunt us about the deaths of our astronauts and the impending takeover of our planet. You of all people should know that.
Occupational hazard. Comes with the job.
Not only ‘comes with the job’; it is anticipated and there are mission protocols for dealing with an astronaut death during a mission, as there are with any other imaginably contingency, and they don’t consist of turning off the radio and pretending that there is nothing wrong. Whether or not some presidential speechwriter claims that such a command would have been given–even if it was actually approved by the President–NASA Mission Control would continue to maintain contact and keep systems going even in the face of seemingly impossible odds, if for no other reason than to do every possible thing to understand what can go wrong and how it can be avoided in the future.
Stranger
Because Apollo 11 didn’t have Buzz Aldrin take communion on the surface of the moon…
And being an Observant Catholic relates to this how? 
Safire was a speechwriter, not a rocket scientist. I doubt he held a clear understanding of the exact technical protocol in the event of a disaster. In fact, NASA most likely never shared (or probably even wrote down) the actual protocol, because if they had, vultures in the media would have chewed on it for weeks leading up to the mission.