Twilight Zone

Eugene Robinson said he did not dispute the fact that the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight 370 was a mystery but hit out at the “orgy of... pure speculation” surrounding the search for missing Boeing 777-200ER (9M-MRO).

The plane disappeared on March 8 with 239 people on board en route to Beijing. That is the only indisputable fact at this point.

Yesterday, Australia released satellite images of objects found floating in waters 2,500km from Perth.

Robinson was particularly scathing about the way cable television networks – singling out CNN – have responded to the search for MH370, which enters its 14th day today.

“CNN has soared to the top of the cable news ratings – at times besting even behemoth Fox News – by covering the story ceaselessly, and by that I mean you wonder when the anchors get a chance to go to the bathroom,” Robinson said.

After the Australians released the satellite images, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper tweeted that he was rushing back to the studio to cover this breaking development.

This was despite the fact that all the Australians had were photographs of two pieces of debris, which might or might not be from MH370.

Cooper turned up at the studio to “tell us the same thing, as if we were hard of hearing”, said Robinson.

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