I'm writing a piece for myajc.com and the print edition about CNN's laser-focused coverage of the missing Malaysian plane, which I'll link to once it posts.
The basic premise: CNN in the past would not have given this much time and energy to a single story with so little factual information and so much speculation. But now it seems to be feeding off public interest and the lure of higher ratings, a necessity in a more competitive age.
Here are excerpts from my interview with Sam Feist, the Washington D.C. bureau chief for CNN, on Wednesday, 11 days into the plane disappearance:
Q: Why is CNN covering this story so aggressively?
Feist: I've been at CNN for 23 years and I've never seen a story like this. It's a story with so many fascinating and compelling angles. It makes every sense in the world CNN would cover this story and cover it heavily. It's one of the most modern jetliners ever built. It disappears out of the sky with 239 people. It's a story with so many fascinating and compelling angles. It has the human drama angle because of the 239 people. It has national security questions and foreign relations questions. We've seen quite a number of fascinating stories about how the Asian countries have worked together. There's a business story since Boeing is one of our most important companies. People who fly want to know if planes they are flying are safe. Then there's the technology angle.
Q: Those are a lot of angles.
Feist: Let's be honest. It's very rare that jumbo jets crash at all. We haven't seen anything like this. It's a real mystery. It makes every sense in the world for CNN to cover the story and cover it heavily. In some ways, we're uniquely positioned. We have our worldwide news gathering operation. We had boots on the ground from day one. We have reporters and producers all over Asia. We have an enormous international operation by any standard. We have bureaus in Hong Kong, Seoul, Beijing, Tokyo. That's an important distinction between us and other organizations.
Q: It's fair to say news operations cover plane crashes heavily anyway. This one just seems bigger.
Feist: This is a remarkable story. I covered TWA 800 in 1996. I was on the ground on Long Island . That story captivated America. What happened to that 747? We covered it for years. We did a documentary on that just last year. That was our lead story for weeks. In that case, the mystery wasn't where the plane was. We knew where it was. It was what happened? This story, we don't know what happened and we don't know where it is. We may never find out what happened if we don't find that plane. Our viewers are fascinated by it, as I am. I get home and I'm not watching 'Dancing With the Stars.' I turn back to CNN to see if anything new happened.
Q: Will there be a point when you decide to cut back coverage?
Feist: We're evaluating every day, as we should. We look at the news landscape, look at other new stories. We are covering the other stories. We are covering the crisis in the Ukraine. We took the President's statements, Vladamir Putin's statements to Parliament. This morning, we talked about the political implications during our inside politics segment. And CNN.com is covering all the other news extensively as it normally would. Our viewers and users are able to find other news. But without a doubt, the big story of the day for the last week or so is this story. It's the story Americans are talking about today.
Q: I see you even have Martin Savidge in a flight simulator.
Feist: There are not many privately owned 777 flight simulators. We found one. Martin Savidge was sent up from Atlanta to Toronto. It's another way to illustrate what's been happening as we learn new developments in the story. We are also using our magic walls and aviation correspondents and analysts. We have a full-time aviation correspondent Rene Marsh. She has experts and sources she's in touch with. We have a number of aviation experts and analysts we've brought in to help explain some of the details: 777 pilots, former FAA crash investigation experts, a former DOT inspection general.
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