CNN has been roundly mocked this week for extreme abuse of the "breaking news alert." On Monday night, Bill Weir combined yet another of the network's stories on the missing Malaysian flight with the anniversary of the Titanic's sinking. A graphic appeared on-screen that blared, "BREAKING NEWS: Titanic sunk 102 years ago tonight."
The segment was so ridiculous that even the liberal Washington Post derided CNN. Humor writer Alexandra Petri scolded her cable colleagues, sarcastically noting, "Thank heavens they’re here to tell us these things!" She wondered, "What happened to the Hinderberg? Is the Lusitania okay? I haven’t heard from that Donner Party in a while." [See video of the CNN segment below.]
Mediaite's Evan McMurry sourly explained:
CNN’s fetishization of the Breaking News banner (no more egregious than Fox News’ “Alert,” in fairness) coincided with a story about the deep-sea scouring for MH370, to result in the “Breaking News” that a ship called the Titanic sunk.
Midway through the segment, the on-screen graphic mysteriously disappeared. Did someone at CNN realize how silly 102-year-old breaking "news" looked?
The year 2015 will mark the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War. Tune in to CNN next April to see how the whole thing turned out.
