Jon Stewart, Joe Scarborough And Others Skewer CNN For Round-The-Clock Cruise Ship Coverage

Comedy Central

CNN viewers on Thursday might not have been aware of much else happening in the news besides the long-awaited docking of the Carnival Triumph Cruise ship, which had lost power while life on the ship deteriorated into generally disgusting conditions.

CNN devoted round-the-clock coverage to the ship's docking, something the network hyped up in a press release earlier on Thursday:

CNN’s Erin Burnett will anchor "Erin Burnett OutFront" from Mobile, Alabama, where the ship will dock. Sandra Endo covers the ship’s arrival by helicopter; Victor Blackwell monitors by boat; and David Mattingly and Martin Savidge report from the dock in Mobile. CNN.com/live and the CNN apps will live stream the docking. CNN International will simulcast the arrival later tonight.

On Saturday at 7:30pmET and 10:30pmET, CNN will broadcast "Cruise from Hell: Stranded at Sea," a 30 minute special reported by Martin Savidge.

"Daily Show" host Jon Stewart and "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough had a field day with the coverage. Stewart reacted to a clip of Burnett saying she was "visually connecting" two family members.

"You're not heroes, guys," Stewart said of CNN. "It's not a hostage situation or a baby in a well. You reconnected them? They weren't supposed to see each other. They were on a cruise for a few days."

Likewise, Scarborough joked that he wasn't aware of Republicans blocking Chuck Hagel's nomination for Secretary of Defense because he had only been watching CNN all day.

"Because of the problems with this cruise line, all of the problems in the world stopped," Scarborough said. "The killing in Syria — it came to an end. Yesterday on Capitol Hill, Republicans and Democrats hugged. The whole idea of a historic hold on the Secretary of Defense — they just said, 'Let's just put this aside because of the big cruise ship debacle.'"

Over at The Denver Post, media reporter Joanne Ostrow writes in a biting, short critique that CNN mistook "the cruise ship story for Normandy landing."

The clip of Stewart is below: