As news broke that AirAsia Flight QZ8501 had gone missing en route to Singapore, investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson offered her own theory as to why networks provide wall-to-wall coverage of such “general controversies.”

Appearing on Fox News’ “MediaBuzz” with host Howard Kurtz today, Attkisson contended that while it’s beneficial to ask questions about events such as Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared earlier this year, and the missing AirAsia plane, news networks often devote a lot of coverage to such mysteries to avoid covering controversial stories.

Some networks such as CNN devoted much of its airtime to covering the missing Malaysia Airlines flight and garnered attention for its continuous coverage.

“There are some gatekeepers occasionally who look for excuses if there are controversies that they don’t agree with or they don’t want to cover,” Attkisson, a Daily Signal senior independent contributor, said. “They look for excuses to cover these weather stories or these general controversies like the plane, and they they say, ‘Oh sorry, we didn’t have time to cover all these other stories.'”

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