Eugene Robinson: "Lost" in a Black Hole:News Media's Missing Plane Coverage Enters the Twilight Zone

[babylonsister]

http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/robinson-missing-plane-coverage-enters-the-twilight-zone

Eugene Robinson | "Lost" in a Black Hole: News Media's Missing Plane Coverage Enters the Twilight Zone

EUGENE ROBINSON ON BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT


Let me go out on a limb: The Malaysian airliner did not get sucked into a black hole, vanish over the Indian Ocean equivalent of the Bermuda Triangle or crash-land on the spooky island from "Lost."

Those "theories" were actually discussed on CNN this week. Host Don Lemon dismissed them as "preposterous" before asking one of his assembled "expert" guests -- there were six of them waiting expectantly in their boxes on the screen -- whether, you know, such ideas really were so preposterous.

At which point the nonstop coverage of this tragedy entered the Twilight Zone.

The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is pretty close to a pure mystery. The news media -- especially the cable television networks -- have responded with an orgy of what can only be called pure speculation. Far too often, as every journalist knows, the facts get in the way of a good story. In this case, there aren't any indisputably consequent facts except one: On March 8, a jetliner with 239 people aboard went missing.

On second thought, I guess there's one other fact that matters: The mystery is so compelling that people can't seem to get enough of it. CNN has soared to the top of the cable news ratings -- at times besting even behemoth Fox News -- by covering the story ceaselessly, and by that I mean you wonder when the anchors get a chance to go to the bathroom.

snip//

I think there must be something in all of us that is drawn to mysteries and disappearances. When stories are incomplete, we have an instinct to write endings. "What happened?" is the basic question that all journalism tries to answer.

But when we don't know the answer, we should just say so -- then shut up. Endless content-free coverage deserves to be eaten by a black hole.

[malaise]

1. I wish a black hole would eat all of CNN

[TexasProgresive]

4. That black hole could swallow all of cable snooze.

[SharonAnn]

2. This is like the summer of 2001. All "Chandra", all the time. It really crossed into the

Twilight Zone and made a home there.

Speculation up speculation, character assassination, preposterous theories, etc.

Then 9-11 happened and we switched to "terror, terror, terror" after the actual news portion had died down.

[Lint Head]

3. I think the incessant coverage of this tragedy will backfire.