MAS Boeing 777 Disappearance | TV News Coverage

I'm afraid this story just highlights some of the worst practices of modern 24-hour news. There is precious little facts available, so you're just seeing endless, groundless speculation. The American networks are the worse, of course.

I apologise for my poor grammar and spelling. This was written on a tablet and I'm not a big fan of typing on the screen.

Gotta make money. CNNs US ratings have risen dramatically since they've started saturation coverage that they are now doing for "big" international stories.

CNN’s nonstop coverage of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 continued to pay off in the form of ratings wins throughout the weekend. On Saturday, Fox News won the day in total viewers and in the A25-54 demo, as it always does. But CNN was No. 1 in both measurements — a very rare feat — between 3-6pmET.

3pm, Saturday, 3/15
CNN: 970,000 / 291,000
FNC: 964,000 / 282,000
MSNBC: 315,000 / 69,000

4pm, Saturday, 3/15
CNN: 1.062M / 288,000
FNC: 728,000 / 194,000
MSNBC: 290,000 / 70,000

5pm, Saturday, 3/15
CNN: 1.121M / 313,000
FNC: 702,000 / 148,000
MSNBC: 201,000 / 77,000

On Sunday, CNN pulled out a win in the demo for both total day and primetime viewing, and was again No. 1 among total viewers between 4-6pmET.

4pm, Sunday, 3/16
CNN: 999,000 / 290,000
FNC: 939,000 / 154,000
MSNBC: 278,000 / 79,000

5pm, Sunday, 3/16
CNN: 1.189M / 380,000
FNC: 828,000 / 120,000
MSNBC: 220,000 / 80,000

Last week’s intense coverage of MH370 also made ratings history on CNN.

Juliana Liu has been sent from Hong Kong to KL since yesterday, maybe to relief Jennifer Pak for a bit. I haven't seen Jonathan Head for a few days now. Does he (South East Asia correspondent) count as a high profile enough person to be sent over? Anyway, I agree they could have deploy someone of Singapore like Rico or Sheranjit over as well. So far I notice no permanent correspondent is stationed in Malaysia by the BBC even before the MH370 event. Maybe Malaysia isn't always having things to cover. From what I gather, Jennifer Pak who seems to be freelancing is usually the default person to cover Malaysian events. If the event is big enough, usually it'll be followed by a visit from Johnathan Head from Thailand where he's usually based.