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MH370 Overcoverage for Ratings? Well, duh…

FTVLive got its hands on an internal CNN memo to staff about the MH370 coverage…or overcoverage. I am disappointed the site did not publish the full memo instead of just summarizing it…

In the note obtained by FTVLive, in tops off with Digital saying they are having “one of the best weeks in traffic.”

Then it gets into the top stories and talks about the missing plane:

“On TV: we are wall to wall with the plane mystery; this is a strategy we are confident and comfortable with” the coverage note to the staff says.

It goes on to say “when a major story happens (ala Boston Bombing, Oklahoma Tornados, George Zimmerman) we go all in”

The next line says “That is our vision and our strategy”

As for those in house question CNN’s over coverage of the missing plane, the next line in the coverage note says “We are not ignoring other stories because we have multiple distribution platforms.”

Some CNN Staffers say the network is ignoring other stories and doing it all in the name of ratings.

Of course it is in the name of ratings. Every time CNN goes all in, it is in the hopes (expectation?) of getting a ratings bump. This is not a new malady, nor is it a byproduct of Jeff Zucker running the show…though it does seem a tad more blatant about it now that Jeff Zucker is running the show (i.e. tape, tape, tape)…

This entry was posted on March 19, 2014 at 5:40 am and is filed under CNN. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

40 Responses to “MH370 Overcoverage for Ratings? Well, duh…”

  1. larrykelly Says:
    March 19, 2014 at 8:16 am

    I heard that somewhere.

  2. dustinsoper Says:
    March 19, 2014 at 8:16 am

    I’m disappointed they’re not publishing the entire Memo because these quotes could come from other news stories about the coverage – nothing really new here IMO.

  3. larrykelly Says:
    March 19, 2014 at 8:42 am

    Me, I’ll stick to the first two minutes of the NBC nightly news and leave the morons to binge like cows regurgitating their cud. Defending this crap is the only thing I find more repugnant than its existence — unless cable news as SHOWBIZ is all you demand of it.

  4. Andy Marquis Says:
    March 19, 2014 at 9:39 am

    Always offensive, all the time.

  5. larrykelly Says:
    March 19, 2014 at 9:53 am

    Nothing much to offer… Most of the time.

  6. larrykelly Says:
    March 19, 2014 at 9:54 am

    Don’t be handing your password out to other people folks.. It’s reckless.

  7. Andy Marquis Says:
    March 19, 2014 at 10:17 am

    It’s amazing what you’ve reduced this site to, LK. You’ve run everyone else off so now you’re trolling Spud for talking about cable news… on a cable news blog… that he owns. Good grief.

  8. larrykelly Says:
    March 19, 2014 at 10:30 am

    Spud is a big enough man to be challenged. I have asked him if that was a problem. His response was it was not. Your jumping in to create discord is hardly an asset.

  10. savefarris Says:
    March 19, 2014 at 11:34 am

    It goes on to say “when a major story happens (ala Boston Bombing, Oklahoma Tornados, George Zimmerman) we go all in”. The next line says “That is our vision and our strategy”

    … And in 2 of those 3 stories, your overzealousness ended up costing you credibility as you ended up reporting false information.

    Oh wait, the memo didn’t add that part??

  11. danoregon Says:
    March 19, 2014 at 1:33 pm

    CNN is going all in on the plane for the same reason Fox News still rails about Benghazi or ESPN talks about Tim Tebow. I guess the difference is we perhaps we expect better from CNN

  12. paminwi Says:
    March 19, 2014 at 1:52 pm

    Hey Danny boy: We sent OUR soldiers and staff into Benghazi and they DIED. Theyvdied because of the incompetence of our very own State Department. Our country did not send anyone on this plane and we have Americans dead because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

    If your little pea brain can’t see the difference between these two situations I am even more afraid for our country because there are people like you voting idiots like Obama into office.

    IMO

  13. joeremi Says:
    March 19, 2014 at 2:34 pm

    13 attacks during Bush’s administration. Because having consulates and embassies (and CIA posts) in other countries can be dangerous. (courtesy Huffington Post)

    January 22, 2002. Calcutta, India. Gunmen associated with Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami attack the U.S. Consulate. Five people are killed.

    June 14, 2002. Karachi, Pakistan. Suicide bomber connected with al Qaeda attacks the U.S. Consulate, killing 12 and injuring 51.

    October 12, 2002. Denpasar, Indonesia. U.S. diplomatic offices bombed as part of a string of “Bali Bombings.” No fatalities.

    February 28, 2003. Islamabad, Pakistan. Several gunmen fire upon the U.S. Embassy. Two people are killed.

    May 12, 2003. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Armed al Qaeda terrorists storm the diplomatic compound, killing 36 people including nine Americans. The assailants committed suicide by detonating a truck bomb.

    July 30, 2004. Tashkent, Uzbekistan. A suicide bomber from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan attacks the U.S. Embassy, killing two people.

    December 6, 2004. Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Al Qaeda terrorists storm the U.S. Consulate and occupy the perimeter wall. Nine people are killed.

    March 2, 2006. Karachi, Pakistan again. Suicide bomber attacks the U.S. Consulate killing four people, including U.S. diplomat David Foy who was directly targeted by the attackers.

    September 12, 2006. Damascus, Syria. Four armed gunmen shouting “Allahu akbar” storm the U.S. Embassy using grenades, automatic weapons, a car bomb and a truck bomb. Four people are killed, 13 are wounded.

    January 12, 2007. Athens, Greece. Members of a Greek terrorist group called the Revolutionary Struggle fire a rocket-propelled grenade at the U.S. Embassy. No fatalities.

    March 18, 2008. Sana’a, Yemen. Members of the al-Qaeda-linked Islamic Jihad of Yemen fire a mortar at the U.S. Embassy. The shot misses the embassy, but hits nearby school killing two.

    July 9, 2008. Istanbul, Turkey. Four armed terrorists attack the U.S. Consulate. Six people are killed.

    September 17, 2008. Sana’a, Yemen. Terrorists dressed as military officials attack the U.S. Embassy with an arsenal of weapons including RPGs and detonate two car bombs. Sixteen people are killed, including an American student and her husband (they had been married for three weeks when the attack occurred). This is the second attack on this embassy in seven months.

  14. larrykelly Says:
    March 19, 2014 at 4:20 pm

    how many Ambassadors died?

  15. joeremi Says:
    March 19, 2014 at 4:28 pm

    That’s not the point. FNC and the rest of rightwing media are acting like terrible things never happened at consulates and embassies until President They Don’t Like got the job. Where were they during those 13 events? Where was the handwringing over David Foy?

    If you put an embassy/consulate in a dangerous part of the world, you risk dangerous things happening. And if a Democrat does it, he risks it being turned into a miniseries by Fox News.

  16. larrykelly Says:
    March 19, 2014 at 4:46 pm

    I would say the deal was that if an ambassador gets murdered, it represents the ultimate breakdown in security as he is the most protected.

  18. larrykelly Says:
    March 19, 2014 at 5:39 pm

    There are two very different sides to this coverage/over-coverage issue, but as it drags on I expect to be in the vast majority. I’m done complaining about it. Nuf said.

  19. icemannyr Says:
    March 19, 2014 at 5:47 pm

    People post a comment and the response is name calling. That’s why no one comments anymore.

  20. lonestar77 Says:
    March 19, 2014 at 5:54 pm

    How many of those attacks got blamed on a you tube video…during an election…when you’re running on decimating al quaeda?

  21. larrykelly Says:
    March 19, 2014 at 6:38 pm

    One good thing that could come out of this is that if CNN keeps preempting CROSSFIRE, maybe they will forget to put it back on. Nothing good will come from posing a question as Don Lemon did that the Supernatural might be involved. Imagine being a loved one of a passenger and hearing that on your TV?

  22. paminwi Says:
    March 19, 2014 at 8:18 pm

    Ice: I said the guy had a pea brain. That was defining his brain size. The only person I name called was Obama.

    I m sure he was offended because he has thin skin, but I have not heard from him that he was offended.

  23. larrykelly Says:
    March 19, 2014 at 8:35 pm

    Now if you had made fun of his pants.

  24. joeremi Says:
    March 19, 2014 at 8:37 pm

    In ‘normal decent world’, calling someone a ‘pea brain’ is considered name-calling. So you can either own it or quit it. Doing it, then pretending you didn’t, is dishonest.

  25. joeremi Says:
    March 19, 2014 at 8:38 pm

    Meanwhile, back on topic, Australia says they may have found wreckage.

  30. larrykelly Says:
    March 20, 2014 at 9:04 am

    Hey CNN!!! Time is right to bring back Rick Sanchez.

  31. fritz3 Says:
    March 20, 2014 at 9:33 am

    You know you’ve ‘jumped the shark’ on a news story when over coverage of the story is a big part of said story. This is like the ‘balloon boy’ story coverage expect it never ends.

  32. joeremi Says:
    March 20, 2014 at 9:59 am

    This is like the ‘balloon boy’ story coverage expect it never ends.

    Well, we’re at the ‘possibly found it’ part of the story, so it would be kinda odd to back out of it now. Hopefully we’ll know what happened soon.

  33. fritz3 Says:
    March 20, 2014 at 10:25 am

    “Well, we’re at the ‘possibly found it’ part of the story,”

    ^^The key word above being “possible”.

    “story coverage expect it never ends”

    ^^Expect should read except Sorry.

  34. larrykelly Says:
    March 20, 2014 at 11:10 am

    Ah, for the excuse to stay up all night.

  35. larrykelly Says:
    March 20, 2014 at 9:47 pm

    “Sick! HLN brings on ‘psychic’ to talk to dead passengers?!
    That was my joke yesterday. It’s not funny if it’s real.

  36. fritz3 Says:
    March 21, 2014 at 3:46 pm

    Great story tonight by Miles O’Brian on PBS about how thousands of tech savvy people are looking through countless thousands of high definition satellite photos of the Indian Ocean searching for objects that might be flight 370 debris. Must watch for all interested in the story or how technology is changing our world.

    With the hundreds of hours of endless speculation on cable news about the missing plane; it takes single segment in an hour long news program on a Public Television station to tell us about one of the few real pieces of actual news this story has provided.

  37. larrykelly Says:
    March 21, 2014 at 5:49 pm

    Anbody that doesn’t include the PBS NEWSHOUR in their news regulars is missing a real asset. I DVR it every weeknight, and now their weekend show as well. At the very least, I check out the summary for every show which only takes a couple minutes at the beginning.

  38. Patricia Aull Caley Says:
    March 24, 2014 at 3:57 pm

    It’s OK to cover the airplane but 24/7? I had switched over to CNN in the morning when MSNBC started showing ice hockey during the Olympics. (I mean really, ice hockey on a news channel? What were they thinking.) Now I’ve dumped CNN completely. The only other show I watched (cuz I don’t care for the Rev) is Crossfire. But they’ve eliminated that too. Are people really watching this airplane stuff? As Madeleine Albright said, “I know there’s an airplane but we have a crisis in the Ukraine.”

  39. dcmontreal Says:
    March 26, 2014 at 4:54 am

    The recent decision to go with wall to wall coverage of the missing Malaysian airplane has given CNN a huge ratings boost during prime time. But what about the other end of the broadcasting day, how is the morning show doing? “CNN’s ‘New Day’ Hosts Still Don’t Seem Comfortable ” http://dcmontreal.wordpress.com/2014/03/25/cnns-new-day/

  40. Laura Glading APFA Says:
    September 24, 2014 at 5:45 am

    Laura Glading APFA

    MH370 Overcoverage for Ratings? Well, duh… | Inside Cable News

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