Deja Vu: Summer Of The Sharks

“All shark on the time,” an e-mailer called it. The cablers have gone overboard with two recent shark attacks in Florida. For some reason, CNN seems to be the worst offender, but it wasn’t alone. Check out this letter to the editor on MSNBC.com:

“The last time animal attacks were prevalent in the news was the summer of 2001 and we all know what knocked them out of the headlines then. I’m not very superstitious, but I’m superstitious enough to want news outlets to quit reporting on wild animal, specifically shark, attacks on humans. Knock it off and get back to the reporting we have come to expect from MSNBC.” More shark stuff:

> “After 9/11 Howie Kurtz and others were all saying how embarrassing” the Summer Of The Sharks was “and how 9/11 would now inspire real news coverage,” an e-mailer says. “Well anyone who’s watched CNN’s horrendous over-the-top coverage of these two recent shark attacks must feel like we’re back to that pre-9/11, news should be as dumb as possible, place again.”

> The Miami Herald quotes George Burgess, curator of the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida: “I’m sitting here waiting to do two Fox shows back to back. I was on Good Morning America and CNN and have been running from one interview to the next. I spent about four hours today tied up with the autopsy and when I came out, I had 80 messages waiting for me. It’s a real media feeding frenzy right now.”

> Sun-Sentinel: “By early Tuesday, reporters, photographers and camera crews outnumbered beachgoers at Cape San Blas.”