Posted on 01/04/2006 3:36:38 PM PST by NotchJohnson
TALLMANSVILLE, West Virginia (CNN) -- Rescuers found the sole survivor of an explosion that trapped 13 miners in a West Virginia coal mine "by the sound of moans," mining officials said Wednesday, about 12 hours after family members learned the initial report that their loved ones were alive was erroneous. Without giving a reason for the miscommunication -- and without assigning blame -- mining executive Ben Hatfield said he deeply regrets "allowing the jubilation to go on longer than it should have." Hatfield and Gene Kitts, senior vice president of International Coal Group, gave several possible reasons for how the false information was circulated.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Reporters broadcast and printed stories told to them by someone who heard from someone that an unofficial source called someone else on a cell phone and said that 12 men survived the mining accident. They got it wrong, plain and simple. And this is not the first time in recent history.
Journalists still report that Valerie Plame was a covert CIA operative, yet she was not covert as defined in the law. Reporters said that John Paul II was dead hours before he had passed. News organizations asserted during the 2004 presidential election that a forged document, which was obviously created with Microsoft Word, had been generated in 1972. And then we have all the false reports about New Orleans in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina.
Journalism is the only profession specifically protected by the Bill of Rights in the Constitution of the United States. Reporters, who have a defined role in a free society, are often accused of liberal bias and attempting to falsely influence politics. But Americans can see through their bias with the help of new media. Real damage comes from passive acceptance of false reporting.
Consider. The Chief of Staff to the Vice President of the United States has been indicted on flimsy charges of perjury and obstruction of justice based on the false reports about Valerie Plame. The once-vaunted CBS was disgraced and forced to fire its leading anchor because of a document scandal. And the most notable statement spawned by hurricane Katrina? “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”
Remember the mine tragedy and pray for comfort of families and those who loved the lost. But do not forget that reporters never had one official source for their assertion in broadcast and print that men survived, when they actually perished. The pain of grieving loved ones would not be relieved one bit by introspection of journalists, but the damage irresponsible media may cause in the future should be.
couldn't agree more. when i see that poor man, the head of the company, who appears to have done all he could and the best he could despite being up day and night, apologizing, it breaks my heart. i am furious at the press and its disastrous performance in this. they have gone from anonymous sources to no sourcing or fact checking at all. they deserve extinction.
I feel horribly sad for all who lost loved ones here. However, all the evidence I've seen is that it became a rumor-driven he-said-she-said almost mob-like mentality when word of the living miners came through. I did not happen to see any of the news coverage last night, as my husband is an avid FSU fan and the game was on, but was saddened to see it this morning.
I can't really tell who is at fault here, if there even is a fault. It seems more like a foolish mistake that had sad consequences.
As mentioned above, the press in this nation has been given wider levity than anywhere else on earth. This has been done, from a constitutional perspective, to ensure that the people, tasked with the responsibilities of self-governance, remain adequately informed to do so.
I'm aware of far too few journalists who seem to be aware of there simple responsibilities in this role, or who appear to take it seriously.
I do not begrudge any person earning whatever they can legally earn by doing whatever they legally do, yet, when the social utility of a profession, particularly one assigned certain responsibilities and stipulated certain rights abandons that role simply for, "the scoop," facts be damned, they have seriously malfunctioned.
It's particularly visible in this case, because the failure to check facts and confirm information before 'running with the story,' amounted to little more than the most sinister of pranks on an entire community. There are countless times where the press has damaged the reputations and livliehoods of individuals and families with little remorse for similar failures to confirm the truth.
It was fascinating to watch. I was watching when it was announced that the miners were alive. It was chaos - family members cheering, hugging, crying, smiling. At first the reporters on the scene seemed apprehensive to report the news, saying that they had not heard from the company, but that family members in the church had heard from the company. They kept cutting to the press briefing room saying a conference should come at any time.
But as the coverage went on, though, the reporters seemed to forget that the story had not been confirmed by the mining company. They kept interviewing random passersby and various family members, using them as verified sources. It was fascinating to see the story develop. Absolutely tragic.
Not the press at fault here. Communication from rescuers in mine to command center was '12 alive' & was on speaker phone. Lots of very excited people in room, somebody did not wait for confirmation & called the church. When company officials learned different they called clergy at church, who did NOT let the familys know. Difficult circumstances for all involved, but info screw-up did not alter the outcome.
well sure the press bears some blame. they passed the story on as true. many learned of it - not from the speaker phone, not from the people in the church - but from the media. all info was flowing from company command center: press should have gone there first before it went on the air. period,
FNC must have felt obligated to join in but still went back to the empty media room. At that point I panned FNC on the disaster thread for poor coverage they were doing. Now I feel bad because they were being cautious...
I know whose fault it is - sounds the makin's of a good ol' Bushfault!
Totally agree! At first I thought FNC's coverage was awful (I kept flipping between CNN, MSNBC and FNC), but now I see why.
Side note: Rita Cosby's voice drives me nuts. She was getting a bit too breathy when reporting all this.
One thing I had a real problem with was CNN's "countdown clock" (for lack of a better description) that kept a running tally on the number of hours, minutes, and seconds the miners had been trapped as their on-air personnel reported the story. I thought that was pretty tasteless, if not ghoulish.
What struck me, was 12 hours earlier, the CEO of the mine operation was on the verge of tears when the first hole was drilled and detected lethal levels of gas... Like he knew there was no likely survivors. Now he is trying to be portrayed as some cold hearted bastard.
I'm sure he's already been fingered, tried, and executed at DU.
I kid you not!
Some of the evildoers from the white house press corpse seem to have been present at the Hatfield conference this afternoon.
Congressman Billybob
I thought Geraldo "I'm going to expose all the loot hidden in Al Capone's vault" Rivera's rants were especially ironic. Someone needs to tell the media to put a sock in it when it comes to getting stories right. Pots, kettles, etc.
I disagree. No one in the press stopped long enough to verify the story. They just ran with it--and John Gibson, of all people, did his best to justify that on his "My Word" segment.
The Atlanta Urinal didn't even bother to pull it's copies
of "12 miners found Alive" from it's street boxes, I meant
to get one just to save as a reminder of how bad old media
can be.
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