When the Malaysian Prime Minster announced this week that the families of the 239 aboard missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 should assume the plane crashed into the Indian Ocean and all aboard are gone, it was finally over. While the pain and grief of these families is now just beginning, the conclusion has ended more than two weeks of ceaseless media speculation and sensationalism. From plastic and miniature airplane models to holographic airliners, cable news networks spared no expense in capitalizing on this historic disaster for ratings boosts. While very little about the plane's disappearance was known from the day it went missing to the day it was announced it crashed in the ocean, commentators catapulted conjecture and conspiracy theories to viewers around the world.
The possibility of suicidal pilots, the Bermuda triangle and secret landings were all brought up numerous times throughout the 16-day search, with CNN's Don Lemon even asking if a black hole could be a responsible for the plane's disappearance. (The only thing more problematic than faulty physics behind this question is the lack of common sense in asking it when hundreds of families are demanding actual answers). It all makes sense, really - the sensationalism, the 24-hour obsession, the substitution for the lack of data with pure hypotheticals. This story was the wet dream of our modern news cycle: lives at stake, mysterious circumstances and the potential to take the story in any and all directions imaginable.
Throughout all of this, those of us anxiously awaiting answers - scratching our heads in disbelief that a plane could just vanish - learned as much about the limitations of aviation as we did about the state of journalism, or as writer Michael Wolff called it, "anti-journalism." So what does my frustration with media coverage of this tragedy have to do with being politically erect?
Before spring break, I talked about what happens when we "lose the why" and forget about what motivates us internally. But when answers supported by facts about the outside world elude us, we can do very little to shield our vulnerability to be manipulated. Some questions don't have answers as simple as personal reflection. Imagine having your mother or brother disappear one day with no exact explanation. I'd be researching black holes just to be sure myself.
The exploitation of tragedy is not only symptomatic of modern journalism, but of the way we cope in a world where bad things happen so frequently. Despite the intense speculation and search, we are still left with what was assumed early on with no explanation - that the plane crashed in the ocean.
Something may have happened to the plane that no human being will ever know, and this is the fuel to the fire of speculation: the refusal to simply not know. While curiosity is of the utmost importance in moving our world forward, I can only wonder how many resources have been exerted in the name of finding answers that bring little more than the self-satisfaction of knowing. But there are many things that at this very second we do know: we're ruining our planet, thousands of human beings will die of hunger today and more than six million Americans are in prison. Where are the international action teams? Where is the political pressure? Where is the news coverage? Sensationalism is sustainable and beyond profitable, as any celebrity gossip magazine shows us. But perhaps there is more power in acting in the name of knowledge. Don't let curiosity make you soft. We know enough to change today. Stay erect.
Jonathan Moore is a freshman majoring in American studies and political science. He can be reached at Jonathan.Moore581594@tufts.edu.
