To say the ongoing search to recover the missing Titan submersible before it runs out of oxygen is in danger of spiraling out of control when it comes to media discourse would be under-selling it somewhat, with a myriad of stories emerging in the past 24 hours threatening to overshadow the main driving force behind the search and rescue operation to locate the crew.
Whether it’s the revelation a third-party Xbox controller was being used to pilot the craft, Nicki Minaj weighing in with a vastly unqualified opinion, the company behind the expedition forgetting to take down a job advertisement that could generously be described as being in bad taste given the circumstances, or a documentary being rushed through production and onto the airwaves in questionably quick time, things are in severe danger of getting drastically out of hand.
If that wasn’t bad enough, though, the stepson of missing billionaire Hamish Harding has been caught up in a social media furor of his own, after it was uncovered that he’d been sending flirtatious messages to an OnlyFans model and attending a Blink-182 concert not long after using his Facebook account to offer up his own hopes and prayers, with Men in Black writer Ed Solomon of all people summing up the incredulity.
Of course, people are completely entitled to interpret grief any way they see fit, but it goes without saying that some folks haven’t reacted entirely well to the chain of events that reads as one of the most ridiculous sentences you’re ever likely to lay eyes on in the midst of an ongoing search that’s captured attention all over the world.