Is this the sign of the new Jeff Zucker era?
CNN decided yesterday to sink its resources into wall-to-wall coverage of the Carnival cruise ship's slow slog to shore.
Critics pounced, saying this story didn't deserve that much airtime.
- Huffington Post noted that while Fox and MSNBC covered other issues during the late morning and early afternoon, CNN was laser focused on the ship with a helicopter to provide immediate coverage.
- I'd show you the Jon Stewart clip mocking CNN but this blog software doesn't allow me to do so. You can see it here.
In it, Stewart showed a clip of a young girl on the ship waving to her mother via the TV cameras.
"You're not heroes, guys," Stewart said, to CNN. "It's not a hostage situation or a baby in a well. You reconnected them? They weren't supposed to see each other. They were on a cruise for a few days."
- MSNBC's morning host Joe Scarborough noted: "Because of the problems with this cruise line, all of the problems in the world stopped. The killing in Syria — it came to an end. Yesterday on Capitol Hill, Republicans and Democrats hugged. The whole idea of a historic hold on the Secretary of Defense — they just said, 'Let's just put this aside because of the big cruise ship debacle.'"
- Mediate did a count: On Thursday and Friday morning, CNN mentioned the Carnival non-disaster 168 times, compared with 62 mentions by Fox News, and only 25 by MSNBC.
- The New York Times said the story was right up Zucker's alley:
The coverage had all the hallmarks of Jeff Zucker, the former "Today" show producer and NBC chief executive who took over CNN Worldwide last month. Mr. Zucker has been trying to take advantage of CNN's news resources as he attempts to revitalize the low-rated channel. The cruise ship story was a no-brainer to him: from a producer's standpoint, it has high stakes, human drama and a logical beginning, middle and end. The ship is expected to finally reach port Thursday night.
CNN sent out a release about its coverage yesterday morning.
