Titanic submersible already has a documentary airing today
U.K. broadcaster Channel 5 will air a documentary on the Titanic submersible hours after the craft was estimated to run out of oxygen
Aux News Submersible
In today’s entry of “modern life is its own special kind of hell,” the lost submersible that has captured the attention of the Internet will be the subject of a documentary already set to air on Thursday, just four days after descending into the ocean. U.K. production company ITN apparently specializes in “fast-turnaround” documentaries, so they’re uniquely prepared to cook something up for British broadcaster Channel 5, airing at 7 P.M. local time, per Variety.
“Titanic Sub: Lost at Sea” will be presented by 5 News host Dan Walker and will reportedly “go beyond” the coverage we’ve already seen (hard to imagine, when the coverage we’ve been seeing has been pretty much non-stop). “This program will chart everything from the exploration itself, to the rise of extreme tourism, to the rescue attempts, but above all it will tell a very human story that has captured the nation which is about 5 people, all with families, who are trapped at the bottom of the ocean,” says Ian Rumsey, managing director of content for ITN (via Variety). “Our expertise and heritage in fast-turnaround documentaries and reputation for responsible filmmaking means we always treat such stories with great sensitivity.”
Sensitivity has not necessarily been the primary concern in much of the reaction to the missing submersible, which much of Twitter has taken perverse delight in meme-ing to hell. The problem is, this story has everything, as Stefon would say: the arrogance of the wealthy, the schadenfreude of shoddy submarine workmanship, the Titanic of it all. The stepson of one of the billionaire passengers used the ongoing disaster as leverage to meet Blink-182, creep on female Twitter users, and start a feud with Cardi B. The amount of metaphorical rubbernecking going on is surely reaching historic levels; the sheer power of discourse on ocean exploration alone could fuel a small city.
It’s all fairly grotesque, given that five people (British businessman Hamish Harding; British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman; former French Navy diver Paul-Henry Nargeolet; and OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush) are trapped on a cramped submersible that has likely run out of oxygen at this point, per Reuters. A documentary airing before the bodies are even cold doesn’t feel like a stretch in a world where anything and everything becomes entertainment. No doubt plenty of people will be tuning in.
20 Comments
In the next year or two there will be two movies based on this incident. One will be a dramatic tragedy, and the other will be a satirical comedy. They will both be accurate retellings of events.
Will the comedy one be called ‘Sub Optimal’?
It’ll be called “Go Down”.
Didn’t see nearly this amount of coverage of the four children lost in the Amazon. A dog helped rescue them. A dog!
And he was the bestest boy of all.
Yet another literal 30 Rock plotline
Why is it despicable for them to cover the story but not despicable when you do the same? Actually, scratch that, you’re not even covering the story. You’re just stealing other news outlets’ content for clickbait.
Isn’t this just the media cycle? Turn on CNN and you’ll find plenty of specials/documentaries devoted to fairly recent events; it’s how they balance between live coverage and pretaped content.We can debate how ghoulish the state of things is but…you have obituaries banked up in case prominent people should die so you can break the news asap.
South Park: Six Days to Air.
I live in Canada so perhaps I’m hearing more about this on the news. But my reaction was “why are we getting constant news updates about trapped people who are very likely about to die”. Modern society is fucked.
Because they’re wealthy.
Yeah, just like the only reason we had endless coverage about the rescue efforts for those Thai kids stuck in a cave, and for those Chilean miners, is because they were all billionaires.
Exactly. The story is fascinating because it’s harrowing and imo it’s easy to picture oneself in that situation. We’re laughing because they’re billionaires. Key distinction.
Five…twelve years ago. Our priorities have shifted.
I disagree that if the Thai cave rescue had happened in 2023 instead of 2018, that it would have generated substantially less press coverage. It is also empirically untrue that Americans are more pro-billionaire than they were five years ago; opinion polling shows the opposite. “People trapped in an impossible location with time running out” is just an inherently captivating story, and not one that comes around very often. (In addition to the other two, remember “Balloon Boy”?)
No, I do not remember who Balloon Boy is or was.My issue is that these people were clearly dead days ago and the media narrative was more invested in the long game “they have X hours of oxygen left”, when that was never the larger concern around their submersible. Would anyone have bothered with that if it was a bunch of nobodies in that pod? Lastly, yes public sentiment has shifted against billionaires, but MSM has decided to double down in support of them during that same time span. They know who signs their paychecks.
The people in those crises were billionaire adjacent.
I can’t wait to see the end!
The first Titanic movie was released a month after the sinking. Saved From the Titanic, starring real survivor Dorothy Gibson in the coat she wore that fateful night. History sure does rhyme!
What’s the difference between a “fast-turnaround documentary” and an hour-long news special like CBS might do?