It's the story leading the broadcast evening news, saturating cable, and dominating digital platforms.
The developing saga of a submersible vessel that descended deep into the ocean for a rendezvous with the Titanic has received intense, extraordinary coverage this week from every major news organization, many of which have been covering its mysterious disappearance with live updates and wall-to-wall coverage.
It is, unquestionably, an intriguing story — and covered for good reason. It melds elements of mystery and humanity with a dose of high drama as rescuers race against time in their frantic search for a missing vessel with five souls aboard.
But questions have also been raised about whether the press is going overboard focusing on the story. Is the high volume of coverage and breathless nature of it warranted? Should a missing tourism vessel for the ultra-wealthy take precedence over other consequential stories happening around the world?
Samuel Freedman, a professor at the Columbia Journalism School, told me Wednesday that he can "understand the high drama of this event" and how it "resonates with the Titanic's sinking."
"But," Freedman added, "considering the Trump indictment, the Ukraine war, and other immensely important, ongoing news, the coverage of the sub's disappearance and the attempted rescue seems very excessive to me."
Freedman isn't the only one who believes the coverage has gotten out of hand. And with good reason. The saga does not impact the day-to-day lives of Americans. It isn't a case where government corruption is exposed. And it's not an instance in which news organizations are holding power to account.
In some ways, it has echoes of how the press covered MH370, the Malaysian airliner that went missing in 2014 with 239 people aboard and has never been fully recovered. Dramatic reports Wednesday of mysterious noises detected in the search for the submersible harkened back to 2014 reports in which search crews thought they had located wreckage, only for nothing to be found.
While the press took heat for around-the-clock coverage of MH370, the tragedy was arguably far more worthy of coverage. In addition to the mystery it posed the world, the flight's disappearance raised serious safety questions for the aviation industry, imperiled hundreds of passengers, and there was more hope that some people could be saved.
Meanwhile, as the furious coverage of the missing vessel entered its third day, growing more feverish with time, critics pointed out that other tragic maritime accidents have received far less attention from the press.
"The media obsession with the Titanic submersible is in contrast with the relative meagre coverage of the drownings in the Mediterranean Sea," the Irish journalist Vincent Browne pointed out on Wednesday, referring to the boats carrying scores of migrants that have sunk in recent months in a desperate attempt to reach Europe.
Just last week, Pakistani authorities said that more than 300 people were killed when a fishing boat packed with people sunk off the coast of Greece. Ylva Johansson, the European Union commissioner for home affairs, described the horrific incident as perhaps "the worst tragedy ever" in the Mediterranean Sea. And yet, the disaster did not inspire a level of coverage close to what major news organizations have devoted to the ocean submersible.
"The sinking of a boat carrying hundreds of migrants should be treated this way, but it isn't and hasn't been," Alex Shephard, a staff writer at The New Republic, wrote this week. "It is undoubtedly a new story and an unspeakably tragic one—it's also, unlike the Titanic tourists story, one that says a great deal about the way the world works."
"And yet it's treated as routine or even mundane — yet another faceless tragedy involving people who typically receive far less attention than those who are far better off than they are," Shephard added.
Eric Deggans, NPR's media critic and an adjunct instructor at Duke University, conceded that the coverage of the Titanic vessel has perhaps been over-torqued in recent days. But he said he believed the story was a fascinating one, worth much of the attention.
"Is there too much coverage of this story? Probably," Deggans told me. "But its one of those life-and-death stories where nothing happens for long stretches until something happens and everyone wants to be ready when it does."
"And the background around this story has more depth than you might expect," Deggans added. "From a look at the risky types of tourism, which have evolved to accommodate the super rich, to questions on why journalists never seemed to highlight how dangerous this activity was before now."
