CNN was widely mocked for its obsessive coverage of the missing Malaysian plane, but according to a report by Politico's Hadas Gold, the plane coverage might have enabled CNN's reporters to dig deeper into the explosive Phoenix Veterans Affairs scandal:
Those reporters hadn't quite nailed down an explosive story alleging serious misconduct at the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Hospital, so they used the obsession over the plane to continue working, and then waited for a lull in the 24/7 Flight 370 coverage so they could pounce."Quite frankly, the plane coverage bought us some of that time, so that in April when we finally had it, I mean we didn't sit on it very long... we were all over it," said CNN Senior Investigative Reporter Drew Griffin of the Veterans Affairs report. "Once there was a news hole opening we were ready to go." [Politico]
This reminds me a bit of the trend of whereby political websites now subsidize serious reporting and analysis with celebrity slideshows. This, perhaps, tells us much about the state of modern media. Is this the model of the future?
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
The Week Unwrapped: Can musicians challenge Putin?Podcast Plus who were the ‘human hunters’ of the Bosnian war? And what should happen to captive penguins?
-
The week’s best photosIn Pictures A greedy gull, the fall of AI, and more
-
Sudoku hard: November 14, 2025The daily hard sudoku puzzle from The Week
-
US mints final penny after 232-year runSpeed Read Production of the one-cent coin has ended
-
Warner Bros. explores sale amid Paramount bidsSpeed Read The media giant, home to HBO and DC Studios, has received interest from multiple buying parties
-
Gold tops $4K per ounce, signaling financial uneaseSpeed Read Investors are worried about President Donald Trump’s trade war
-
Electronic Arts to go private in record $55B dealspeed read The video game giant is behind ‘The Sims’ and ‘Madden NFL’
-
New York court tosses Trump's $500M fraud fineSpeed Read A divided appeals court threw out a hefty penalty against President Trump for fraudulently inflating his wealth
-
Trump said to seek government stake in IntelSpeed Read The president and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly discussed the proposal at a recent meeting
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to ChinaSpeed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with DisneySpeed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
