During the round-the-clock coverage of the search for OceanGate’s missing Titanic-bound Titan submersible, the cable network NewsNation displayed a countdown clock for the sub’s remaining oxygen. On Twitter, viewers called out NewsNation for the clock, calling the chyron “insensitive” and “so messed up.”
But a NewsNation spokesperson defended the countdown clock in a statement on Sunday. “The oxygen levels on the Titan submersible have always been an essential and important part of this story,” the spokesperson told Deadline. “Multiple media outlets have published or aired stories tracking the remaining oxygen on the Titan as the search continued. In fact, it would be irresponsible not to include this information in the story of the rescue effort.”
Twitter videos shared by NewsNation show the countdown clock in action. A clip from Wednesday’s episode of “Elizabeth Vargas Reports” shows the “Oxygen Remaining” clock at 10 hours and 17 minutes. And a clip from that evening’s “Banfield” episode shows the clock at 6 hours and 19 minutes.
“Is that a countdown timer?” one viewer replied on Twitter. “Wow! Just wow. So messed up.”
“How insensitive, having a countdown clock for oxygen,” another viewer tweeted.
One Twitter user asked, “WTF is wrong with you people?!”
And a fourth person tweeted, “Way to go NewsNation… a countdown clock on the potential oxygen left for these 5 souls? You literally have no shame. Terrible lack of empathy and decision making. Were you going to countdown the final seconds? [Host] Ashleigh [Banfield], you’re better than that to allow this on your show.”
On Thursday, the U.S. Coast Guard confirmed that debris from the submersible was found on the ocean floor near the Titanic wreckage, indicating a “catastrophic implosion” that killed the five people aboard. Those crew members were OceanGate Explorations CEO Stockton Rush, British billionaire Hamish Harding, Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, and Dawood’s son Suleman.