The AP floats a revolutionary concept--cable news succeeds when it covers what viewers want:
"Critics find the Holloway case an obsession bordering on the bizarre, twisting traditional notions of news judgment and becoming Exhibit A in the media's fascination with missing people - as long as they happen to be young, white, female and pretty.
"But while doing this, Van Susteren has been rewarded with her biggest audiences since making the switch from CNN three years ago.
"She averaged nearly 2.2 million viewers a night in July, up 58 percent from the same period a year ago, according to Nielsen Media Research. CNN's Aaron Brown used to put up a tough fight in the time slot; now Van Susteren routinely triples his audience. She narrowly missed 3 million on July 26, her biggest audience this year.
"Criticism of cable networks for a slavish devotion to a story, whether it merits the attention or not, is nothing new; just insert the names Chandra Levy or Laci Peterson for Holloway. One of many reasons why Fox has been able to soundly beat CNN in the ratings with a considerably smaller news staff is that viewers respond more to this approach.
"'Maybe part of their brilliance is they're not as guilt-ridden about it,' Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, said."
