Media circus surrounds a lost whale

Internet coverage of the whale's last journey [BBC]
Saturation coverage throughout Friday and Saturday had Britain gripped to the fate of a whale stranded in the River Thames. Not since the attacks in London on the 7th July had much of the 24 hour rolling news stations’ time been devoted to one story. Sky hit the airwaves soon after midday Friday with the Breaking News that a whale had been spotted in the River Thames. The ‘Skycopter’ was scrambled, and BBC then joined the chase. Sky stayed with continuing Live pictures of the drama beamed to viewers well into the early evening. Experts were quickly brought to the studio and commentary and discussions on the type of whale and speculation as to what to do with this unusual visitor continued for several hours. The BBC also provided a stream of Live coverage, though they did drop away for other more important stories.
Since the demise of ITV’s News Channel, the coverage of this event was only covered by two channels. However CNN did join the chase as the sun set over London on Friday. And in a pointless Live broadcast in the dark from beside the river Thames, CNN reporter described the drama of the day, with a few clips from the days events. Before long the story was global. From China to the USA and Australia, broadcasters covered the ongoing saga.
The drama continued throughout Saturday when the whale was re-spotted near Battersea in west London. Hundreds of Londoners lined the embankments and Battersea Bridge in order to catch a glimpse of the now correctly identified Bottle-nosed Whale. By 12:30 GMT, the whale had been netted and within 2 hours it was on a journey along the Thames towards the North Sea. The return to sea proved too slow, however, and at 19:00 the whale died as it passed the Essex and Kent border. All was lost. And as the whale was lifted to the dockside at Gravesend, the saturation coverage drained away. Sunday’s papers carried the story prominently in many editions. The broadsheets as well as the tabloids carried the story on the front page. Though some of the tabloids were carrying their DVD give-away promotions far more prominently.
The more serious issue of how a bottle-nosed whale came to be so far outside its usual territory was little discussed through all the media coverage. Specifically as to how it may have a connection to global climate change. Something which has been of great concern in recent weeks as many large regions of the globe are hit by icy conditions. Japan, China, Pakistan, India and Russia have all been hit by record snow fall with temperatures dropping as low as 40 degrees Celsius. Hundreds throughout the regions affected have died.