The WV miners: "they're alive! It's a miracle from..."... uh....

Casto said the tragedy has shaken the faith of some in the community. "We have got some of us ... saying... that we don't even know if there is a Lord anymore," she said. "We had a miracle, and it was taken away from us."

BUILDS CHARACTER!

But the media wasn't responsible for telling the families there where that many survivors were they? I understood that it was miscommunication that quickly spread as rumor amongst the families. The media just seems repsonisble for jumping the gun.

Even if they hadn't of misreported the story the families still would have had their hearts broken by bad information.

But being told that a miracle has happened and that your family left for dead is alive.. then told "uh, oops, they're dead after all.".. is just 100 tiers above ALL-FUCKITUDE compared to allowing oneself to accept a loved one being a victim in a horrible tragedy over time.

Neither is a picnic, but I'd rather NEVER be given such adrenalin rushing false hope... EVER. That's fucked up.

I'm not blaming them for miscommunication. I'm angry at them for what will eventually be their spin on the whole miscommunication issue, which will all be self-serving.

The Book of Job is a son of a bitch.

((This is all very unfortunate...))

This is so incredibly sad.

They just cursed out the Lord, dude.

even though they had the breaking news banner at the top of the page, it took cnn at over an hour to take down the story about how jubilant everyone was. if i had been in control of what got posted on the web, i would have replaced the miracle story with a brief update until further information was available instead of letting it sit thiere for hours.

ihttp://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/01/04/nytfrontpage/scan.jpg

BEN HATFIELD

"I'm not surprised or upset with them. They certainly have some basis for their frustration, having been put through this emotional roller-coaster. I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

i'm surprised he didn't come out and deny liability right away.

Hatfield said the erroneous information spread rapidly when people overheard cell phone calls between rescuers and the rescue command center. In reality, rescuers had confirmed finding 12 miners and were checking their vital signs, he said.

"The initial report from the rescue team to the command center indicated multiple survivors," Hatfield said during a news conference. "That information spread like wildfire, because it had come from the command center. It quickly got out of control."

Hatfield said the company waited to correct the information until it knew more about the rescue.

xp

And the disadvantage with this is... beside upsetting some higher-ups at the media company who want hits on the website and papers sold?

Oh that's right.. I answered my own question.

nor does NANCY GRACE. god, can someone PLEASE shut that woman up!?!?

The Shrupp piece was a little more succinct, but this quote really gnawed at me:

Baron added that if the paper had held off on the story and it turned out to be true, it would have drawn criticism for waiting too long. "At some point, you've got to print a paper," he said. "I don't know what else you can do."

Hmm, I don't know, DON'T REPORT SOMETHING AS FACT AS YOUR HEADLINE IF YOU'RE NOT SURE, DUMBASS!

Town Gossip: Apparently, 12 of them are still alive, because they only found one so far.

it's a sad fact of modern life that most people who have jobs would like to keep them.

I'd assume people working in the newsroom would be this scrutinous.

*STOMP*

If you're going to report on something as it breaks, you have to say that "early reports from ____ indicate that ..." -as opposed to printing it as fact.

ding ding ding, OT fuckin' M. but you try telling most newsroom types that. and hey, i include myself in that: as a headline-writer, i know only too well how carried away you can get as the edition deadline approaches.

Possible weather occurring in New York today

Wall St. saw some action today, some reports say

http://www.pnionline.com/dnblog/attytood/archives/002620.html

In the past two years, the mine was cited 273 times for safety violations, of which about a third were classified as "significant and substantial," according to documents compiled by the Labor Department's Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). Many were for problems that could contribute to accidental explosions or the collapse of mine tunnels, records show.

In addition, 16 violations logged in the past eight months were listed as "unwarrantable failures," a designation reserved for serious safety infractions for which the operator had either already been warned, or which showed "indifference or extreme lack of care," said Tony Oppegard, a former MSHA senior adviser.

"That is a very high number, and it is usually indicative of a very poor safety record," Oppegard said.

Possible weather occurring in New York today

Wall St. saw some action today, some reports say

-- Dom iNut (do...), January 4th, 2006.

OTM

Pretty creative on the editorial cartoonist's part, imo.

Just because they backed down three hours later, leaving little evidence of their earlier mistake, it doesn't mean TV and the internet come out smelling any better.

Although I'd also argue that when the head of the local government tells you that "Miracles do happen" having just come from a meeting with relatives who are now spilling out onto the streets with bottles of champagne, what more confirmation is needed? A local senior official said they were alive — should everyone wait until they media have spoken to the miners themselves before they report on what's being talked about?

More to the point, where, exactly, were Anderson Cooper et al. supposed to GO to find reliable information without interfering with the rescue operation? The media didn't start the frenzy in the town itself. Fuckin' Caveat Emptor, news watchers. All this laying blame at the feet of reporters and editors trying to meet deadlines is k-fucking-lame.

i think people are saying that the media could have held off on reporting ANYTHING until they had better info. which i would agree with totally, but it's not how the media works, and if you don't like it, schedule a meeting with sumner redstone et al. i think the "family members say"-style headline covers everyone's asses quite nicely though. temporarily.

I can imagine that bitchfest thread: "How the fuck did the news media not know? Everybody in town was talking about it!"

The problem with this is that in several live TV cases the on-scene reporters were accosted by locals who wanted to spread the news on tv. It becomes impossible to hold off, unless you just don't send any camera crews etc down to the scene. Which some might argue is better and I might not disagree with those people, but having people there at all with tv cameras means it is basically impossible to just not report anything.

This is really, really misplaced anger and annoyance from the public to really give the media one over this. Should they have been more careful with the story? Yes, but on the other hand I mean you have senior officials/elected officials/rescue command center workers/family members all telling you point blank these people are alive--does everyone expect them to wait for the miners themselves to come out for a chat before announcing the break?

It's not like this is the first time in history absolute confusion reigned and the wrong story got out before the correct story did, in life and death situations no less.

What aggravated the hurt in this situation was the word "miracle"... especially when it was bandied about as headlines in the media... which, sadly in turn, came back around with greater force in an opposite way.. like some horrific demon.. after the real news was revealed. People may forget about this particular story by next week or so.. but world media will always remember the "miracle" disaster in their world in this context, and I doubt we'll be seeing this word used any more than after several confirmations after another near-disaster.. or until victims "come out for a chat" as Allyzay put it best.

What will be interesting is what the sole surviving miner will have to say about all of this after he, crossing fingers, comes back to consciousness. It will be interesting in a very depressing way, granted.

Now that I think about it, hoping that the survivor comes back to consciousness, I don't think this story is going to go away so soon.

newspapers used the same photograph for both "12-alive" and "12-dead" stories.

...The release states, “God is laughing, mocking and deriding hypocritical fag-infested West Virginia.”
The release also says the WBC will picket the funerals of the miners.

When reached by phone, member Shirley Phelps-Roper confirmed that 10 to 15 picketers were making plans to protest at the funerals of the West Virginia miners.

When asked why the group was planning protests at the miners’ funerals, she responded with questions of her own.

According to the press release, "They died in shame and disgrace, citizens of a cursed nation of unthankful, unholy perverts who have departed from the living God to worship on 'Brokeback Mountain' and who have replaced the Bible with 'The Da Vinci Code....'"

StayBecome classy for once, stupid company.

http://www.grist.org/article/2010-04-22-massey-denies-time-for-workers-to-attend-funerals-of-friends-who/