And it is a known fact that the peanuts served on Malaysian airline flights causes flatulence.

[rant]This is about as desperate as the news media's attempts to fill dead air has become. I can't begin to imagine the pain and anguish felt by the friends and families of the missing crew and passengers, and I know they are hungry for any information. But their is something almost mercenary about the meaningless noise being substituted for news that's got to be even crueler.

Friday night Rachel Maddow made what, IMHO, was the most profoundly compassionate and honest statement I've heard yet regarding this tragedy. She said (paraphrasing), The latest news about the missing Malaysian airplane is that there is no new news.

The media needs to respectfully and responsibly back off this story and tell their audiences that they will report verified developments only as quickly as possible. In the meantime, you talking heads go suck on a cup of coffee.[/rant]

...as long as the families aren't made to feel
as though their loved ones are now irrelevant
"old news" or have been summarily "written-off"

I agree. I'm already tired of every spec on a satellite image being called "a potential piece of plane wreckage" only to turn out to be a boat, tree limb, floating garbage, or a finger smudge on the screen of the viewer.

No news is bad news for the business model. So what they're doing (and CNN is by far the worst) is converting no news into news.

That's exactly what Maddow and Chris Hayes said, and they've both stated they will not play that game.

According to Bill Maher... the media has no valid information so it's News !!!

Or what they call Breaking News on Fox !!

Fox? Oh, you mean breaking wind. But that's what this thread is about.