Cable news seems to be made for crisis coverage:

Wall-to-wall coverage of the Washington, D.C., sniper attacks pushed cable news viewing in October to its highest levels since last fall.

In October, Fox News Channel notched a 1.5 average in primetime, down 6 percent from October 2001, when post-Sept. 11 coverage pushed Fox News to record-high marks, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Cable News Network posted a 1.1 average last month, its highest primetime Nielsens all year, but it was off from a 1.8 in October 2001.

MSNBC finished October with a 0.5 in primetime, the first time it's pushed above 0.4 this year.

MSNBC's audience, however, dropped 55 percent since last October.

CNN Headline News and CNBC were not phased by the sniper attacks. Ratings for both channels held to their recent standard of 0.2 in primetime.

You just wish they would come up with something better to fill the dead time (no pun intended) than babbling "experts" wildly speculating. I also despise the immediate pouncing upon the relatives of victims in their most sensitive moments, as I see on the network morning shows every single day. It's almost never news, it's exploitation, as if these people's grief and confusion is in some way revealing or edifying. It isn't.