Wednesday, March 19, 2014

CNN is doing the right thing in its coverage of Malaysian Airlines 370

CNN has been getting a lot of flak over its extensive coverage of the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines 370. I've read everything from CNN's Don Lemon using a model of the Boeing 777 to others calling CNN's coverage an obsession.

I say the critics are wrong. Look, the loss of flight 370 is and probably will be the most interesting story of the decade. We're talking about the complete disappearance of large commercial jetliner in an age of cell phones, radar and GPS. Two hundred and thirty nine lives are at stake. The passengers are from all over the world. Most of them are Chinese. They come from New Zealand. Malaysia. The United States. Australia. Theories about what happened to the plane abound. Mechanical failure. Hijacking. Terrorist theft. Pilot suicide. Pirates. Maybe the pilots flew the plane to Pakistan and landed there for the plane to be used by the Taliban. There are even crazy theories. UFOs. With a story as fascinating as this, CNN is doing the right thing by covering it extensively. And one last thing about the model plane. It is a model plane not a toy. I remember watching newscasters use model rockets to ips to illustrate parts of the ships during NASA missions. So, lay off CNN.

No comments: