Real TV: Bereaved Son of Miner Confronts WV Governor

Today Show/NewsBusters ^ | Mark Finkelstein

[governsleastgovernsbest]

by Mark Finkelstein

January 4, 2006 - 07:58

Once in a while, it happens. TV serves up human drama in real time. It happened on this morning's Today show when the bereaved son of one of the Sago miners confronted the governor of West Virginia over allegedly lax safety enforcement in the mine.

Matt Lauer began with a stand-up interview, at the disaster site, of WV Governor Joe Manchin. Lauer then brought in John Bennett, the adult son of Jim Bennett, one of the miners who died, who stood on Lauer's other side.

Bennett described the history of violations in the mine. Lauer turned to Manchin to inquire about the violations, and Manchin launched into his response when Bennett took matters into his own hands. He spoke across Lauer directly to Manchin: "with all these roof falls and everything that has happened over the multiple months, not weeks, months, that this has happened," Manchin began to reply when Bennett again cut him off: "and they still send men in there?"

It was a poignant moment, as one's heart when out to the son. At the same time, it was an ultimate political moment: a politician on live national TV confronted by a bereaved constituent suggesting the governor's responsibiity for the death of his father and others.

Manchin remained calm and, without directly responding to Bennett's question, described the seals in the mine that had been blown out.

Lauer followed with an apt question to Manchin of his own: "when the average person across the country hears that this mine had been cited for 46 violations as recently as late December, it is hard to understand why it was open for business on Monday when that explosion occured."

Manchin replied by stating that even one fatality is too many, that mining is an inherently dangerous operation, and by mentioning that his own family had suffered a mining death [his uncle was killed in an infamous 1968 disaster in which 78 miners died]. "I know exactly how the families feel. I've been there."

Lauer turned back to Bennett, who seemed on the verge of putting another question to Manchin, when Lauer deflected it, asking Bennett "what questions would you like to put to the mine operators?" Bennett paused, palpably changing directions, and suggested that, for fear of losing their jobs, the men were afraid to speak out about the unsafe mine conditions. Bennett decried the absence of the United Mine Workers to protect the men in the non-union Sago mine.

Bennett conducted himself with dignity, as did Manchin, who is clearly in the crisis of his political life. There were no winners or losers, simply a spontaneous human moment, brought to us in real time.

[maryz]

The Today show suggested that someone, either a company official or someone from the governor's office,

Even the radio host I cited earlier with his call for more gov't regs said that the gov got his info from the families in the church (who got mistaken and unofficial info from, well, it's not clear where), and so did the press. The company hadn't released any info because it didn't have hard facts.

[veronica]

Thanks for that post. An amazing cross-section of people post here, with expertise and knowledge on such varying ranges of topics. Very illuminating information you posted.

[FLAMING DEATH]

Yes, it's under a mountain.

A few years ago, there was a huge outcry here in WV against "mountaintop removal". Mostly, from my observation, it seemed to be a grassroots campaign by a lot of people who had relocated here from the Northeast. For some reason, there seem to be a lot of Northeasterners who live here...I've always heard that they came back in the '60's to "educate the hillbillies", so to speak.

From my personal observations, and in my opinion, the average West Virginian is okay with mountaintop removal, and I've visited a couple of sites and, except for the addition of certain drainage features and a lack of trees, it doesn't seem that devastating, or even ugly. Here's a picture: Incidentally, my grandfather avoided two disasters at Consol No. 9 in Farmington, the first in 1954, when he elected not to work overtime on a Saturday, and the infamous one in 1968, which exploded at 5:30 AM, just before he was to start his shift that morning.

[joesnuffy]

Bet Katie wont tell the folks that 80% of the world's coal mining deaths occur in Communist China...

Will you Comrade Katie!

[Lancey Howard]

Somebody should check the sona fides of this "John Bennett". It could be another one of those New Orleans moments - - the one with the crying clown who claimed his mothewr died in the flood? Anyways, rudely interrupting the governor and then begging for "duh yoonyin" to come in sounds like a typical Democrat/Wellstone-funeral gimmick to me.

[sweet_diane]

I couldn't sleep last night and was flipping channels when I landed on, what I thought was a repeat of Nancy Grace on CNN Headline News. I was there seeing they were alive, even woke my Husband to tell him that the miners were alive! I was watching CNN when the woman ran up to tell whatshisface what the families were being told in the church. What a rollercoaster of emotions for me, so I can only imagine what the families went thru. My Husbands father was the first in his family to not work in the West Virgina coal mines, so I feel a connections of sorts.

Watching live I must say, the Gov did well. The guy from the mining company did the best he could but, IMO, shouldn't have waited so long to break the news to the families. SOMEONE should have said "we cannot comfirm the news of 12 survivors". I don't know who had ultimate authority on what news came out of the command center, but whomever that was made a big mistake by letting the families, muchless the whole country believe for over 2 hrs that the miners were found alive!

[Paved Paradise]

Maybe there are other families like this but ordinarily, the loss of an uncle can't possibly be equated with the loss of a child, spouse or parent. If this were so, companies would allow bereavement leave for these relatives but they don't - it is for immediate family only. I am happy the Manchin family is so close. I am sure there are many families that are like this but they are in the minority.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

In this case I'm quite confident he was bona fide, although I can't prove it. And while he did directly confront the governor, he didn't accuse him directly of responsibility. He raised the issue of why the men were let back in the mine, without accusing anyone in specific of being to blame.

He actually seemed fairly reasonable, and it seemed to me that it was not a staged media stunt or exploitation. Just my gut instinct.

[Tarpon]

I have been wondering -- what do you think the angle will be to blame this on Bush? Lax enforcement of mine safety is my take.

One thing you can count on, it's coming to a moonbat website by tonight's news cycle.

[River_Wrangler]

He should have absolutely been sure those miners were alive before announcing it, you agree with me on that?

Who he??

[sweet_diane]

"The news clips I saw was the Governor saying they found out the news from family members and how he asked his people of they heard anything about this and they said no, there was no confirmation of the news"

I started watching the coverage almost an hour into it (that they were alive) and the only people saying they were alive were some family members and the news media. At first I assumed I had miss the official statement, but knowing how they run official statements over and over began wondering why we were not hearing from someone in authority.

Everyone was looking for good news and all it took was someone mis speaking or mis hearing for this landslide to begin. The media took the Gov saying "miracles can happen!" as he left the church to GET confirmation, AS confirmation. I'm not a journalism student so I don't know if they should have taken that as confirmation or not.

Regardless, my thoughts and prayers are with the families and community. Miners are a tough lot of folks, yet that doesn't diminish their grief.

[ottersnot]

I've worked in drift mines before. To be honest I was a surveyor not a miner, and I'm not an expert. THe mines were in Ohio. The company seemed to be fairly safe, but small cave-ins were a matter of business.

I did notice behaviour by companies that led me to believe that regular inspections (in Ohio remember) were a sham.

This is what I typically observed during an inspection. THe inspectors show up at the site and were escorted into the office for coffee. Meanwhile, those inside the mine would hustle to hang the appropriate curtains that are intended to improve air flow and vent dangerous gases from the mine. The curtains can be a pain in the arse though and were often left open (until the inspectors arrived).

The inspectors are then (eventually) taken into the mine where they are look around for awhile, maybe a half hour or so?, I didn't keep close track but it seemed quick.

It just smacked of a sham to me. To be honest I don't know if it is, but it appeared that way when I saw the foreman hurridley instructing the miners to hang the curtains appropriately. I have the greatest respect for the miners. They were good, hard working individuals working in a very dangerous, unhealthy environment. IMHO they deserve whatever they can force management to pay. I think the lowest paid workers were making about 12 dollars an hour in 1987 when I worked there. Seemed fair to me, or probably a little low.

I probably blame the state to some degree, but the blame also rests on the company. They should know what is safe and what is not (once again, just my opinion from my brief experience of about a year).

God bless them all.

[Lancey Howard]

Hannity had the representative of a mine-safety trade publication on his radio show yesterday and she sounded like she was very knowledgeable. She noted all the violations that this mine had, and said that this mine's violations history far outpaced the sum total of all mine violations in the state of Alabama, for example.

She added that mine operators who are in full compliance should "never" have an accident like this one. She clearly laid the blame at the mine operator's feet, agreeing with Hannity that it "sounded like somebody was cutting corners". She, too, questioned why the mine was allowed to continue to operate, but I never got a clear understanding of who has the ultimate resposibility for that kind of enforcement.

Look for it to be Bush's fault.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Very interesting - thanks for passing along the information.

An aside: did you happen to catch the president of the mine company the last couple days? Even before there were any known deaths, he seemed constantly on the verge of tears in his press conferences.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Despite being a New Yorker, I'm a Tide fan. When that field goal left the kicker's foot, I thought there was no WAY it would go through, but was glad when it did.

[YaYa123]

Anyone heard from Senator Byrd yet?





I watched this God awful display of media misdeeds and malfeasance last night. The 3 hours between the time the untrue rumor was spread, and the time the rumor was corrected, should go down as the final nail in the MSM's coffin.

Because of press deadlines, print journalism's incorrect headlines are almost understandable, certainly their mistake is not unprecedented.

But what happened on scene, by cable "reporters" is despicable and disgusting. You could watch moment by moment as Anderson Cooper went into Katrina mode, resorting to cliches to fill time as he interviewed victims' families.

The wretched, emotional families can't be faulted for making fools of themselves on live television, but the vulture reporters who took advantage of them should be shamed out of their jobs.

[numberonepal]

Dang, a real live Crimson Tide fan from New York City. Don't see that every day. Glad to have ya.

[dfwgator]

Anyone heard from Senator Byrd yet?

He obviously hasn't gotten back from his cross burning yet.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Thanks. I spent a week in Dothan a few years ago, and a good buddy who's the head pro at our golf course played baseball for Bama. Between the two, I became a fan. I thought Prothro was one of the best, most exciting players in the country and was bummed out when he got hurt. Hope he'll be back next season.

PS: I live in upstate NY, about 230 miles NW of NYC.