12 Miner's Found Alive!!!

[MadJack]

I can't believe this......the media ran with an unconfirmed story......I can't even imagine the emotion of the families who were in the church when told their loved ones were alive !!

the media didn't tell the people in the church, the people in the church told the media, including the governor. i hate the media but they are not to blame here. running with the story when it was UNconfirmed, yes, but they didn't start the rumor, the people in the mine did.

 

[Mjolnir]

i disagree. the rumor might have been started by the people in the church, but it is the responsibility of the media to confirm stories. usa today on the front page claimed the miners were alive. i believe you have to confirm stories before setting yourself up fro the backlash.

 

[MadJack]

the rumor came from inside the mine. CNN was at the site reporting LIVE. how else would they have reported what was going on?

i totally agree with the newspapers holding off until confirmed but i'm talking about CNN reporting live from the scene.

hell, the church bells were ringing and people were celebrating. should CNN have turned off coverage until something was confirmed?

that's all i'm saying and i'm done with the subject.

good luck and happy new year.

 

[Agent 0659]

Irresponsible no matter whos to blame.

 

[mcity]

not the way I understand it......someone in the media was trying to eavsdrop on reports coming out of the mine (someone overheard cell phone calls)......they reported to the command center that they had found 12 miners and were checking vital signs.....now how that becomes they are alive I don't know? Sounds like someone IN THE MEDIA was trying to be the first to break a story.....given the circumstances and common sense telling everybody that being trapped in a coal mine is slightly life threatening, I don't think that is the time to try to be the "hey I called it first" reporter/news agency/whatever you are out there. They knew this report was bogus 20 minutes after it broke but yet waited 3 hours to tell the families.....and then when they told them they just matter of fact came in and told the families and left......shows who is looking out for who here. They had to call in the SWAT team and state troopers because they were worried about family members starting violence......really......I would have thought the family members would just sit back and say thanks for the new update. The only thing I will grant is that this moved from a media mess up to the mine officials mess up.....media first for running with a bad story and then mine officials for not telling the families as soon as they knew it was wrong. So as far as I'm concerned.....family can hunt both......justified in my eyes.

 

[Blazer]

NYT Article:

"family members and a state official said 12 of the miners had been found alive"

"the body of one miner was found 11,200 feet from the mine entrance"

"Joe Thornton, deputy secretary for the West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety, said the rescued miners were being examined at the mine shortly before midnight and would soon be taken to nearby hospitals. Mr. Thornton said he did not know details of their medical condition."

"Outside the Sago Baptist Church,family and friends of the miners hugged each other and shed tears of joy as they learned the news."

"Everyone was telling us they were probably dead."

"After the one miner's body was found alone, Bennett K. Hatfield, the chief executive officer of International Coal Group, the mine's owner, said he considered it a hopeful sign"

Terry Goff said he learned that the miners were alive when the bell at the Baptist church began ringing"

"People were rushing out, yelling, 'There's 12 alive!' " Mr. Goff said.
"mine company officials said that with only a few thousand feet of mine left to search, the chances of the miners being alive seemed remote"The Media is not to blame. Read the article and you can plainly see all the news is attributed to the sources.

To blame is the Joe Thorton guy.

To blame is the zealots spreading rumors in the church.

The Media properly (at least in the NYT article) reported the situation.

 

[MadJack]

i am specifically talking about CNN (calling them the media) and they were simply reporting what they were hearing and seeing, live from the scene. i was watching and interested and wanted any information that they could gather for me. they did! what's wrong with that? as time progressed they sifted throuigh the information that was gathered, from the mining company and the governor, and reported that as well. maybe you would have preferred they shut down all cameras and reporting but i preferred seeing and hearing what was going on live.

 

[mcity]

that's fine madjack....I respect your opinion on this situation. For me, it is just the fact that a lot of times it seems in this country the media/someone is so wanting to be the first to break a story that they forget there are people/families out there dealing/grieving with the situation......I'm all for news, but to move with a story when there is no solid proof of what you are reporting is not right. I read the Joe Thorton quote and he obviously didn't know what and the phuck he was talking about.....he didn't know the condition of the men, I didn't see a quote where he said they talked to the 12 men or that the 12 men were now out of the mine.....shouldn't a good reporter/news agency get that info. confirmed before proclaiming 12 trapped men were alive? This wasn't like they reported that joe said "so and so had a boy".....no wait, "it was a girl".....this was serious life and death stuff.....mothers and fathers.....wives and kids whole futures hinged on whether these guys came out alive or not.....these families will never be the same. The old saying...."proof is in the pudding" should've applied here.....they reported pudding and there was none.

 

[Penguinfan]

Keep in mind, the media did not kill these men. While they newspapers are probably guilty of not verifying facts before printing papers, thats all they are guilty of. Even if it did give false hope to a country it still is not what killed these men.

Granted having the rug pulled out from under you is horrible, it still didn't change the grim outcome.

CNN gets a pass here as they were just reporting what news they were recieving, print media on the other hand is guilty as can be since they certainally had time to verify things before going to press.

Still, you can be mad at the media all you want, they are not what caused this diaster.

 

[mcity]

I understand they didn't cause this disaster.......and that they didn't kill these men....but they did indeed contribute to taking these families on an emotional rollercoaster the likes of which we can't fathom........and to me as a father and a normal, caring human being, that is wrong whichever way someone wants to spin it. Where do we draw the line on incompetence in this country? A few facts wrong here.....a few facts wrong there.......no big deal, it wasn't my family.......just so long as I can catch a good nights sleep tonight, I'll come back tomorrow and try to do better.....I'll try to get the story right. That's BS to me.....someone should pay and in that payment there should be a great lesson learned here on responsibility and accountability....we'll see what happens and who if anyone steps up......I have a feeling that the fingers are going to be going in about 10 different directions.

 

[dr. freeze]

you don't know WTF you're talking about AGAIN!

lol obviously YOU dont know what you are talking about AGAIN :mj07: :mj07:

 

[Fat & Sassy]

It appears Repeated Safety Violations at a once abandoned Sago Mine is the ultimate cause.

Here is a thought... There are a lot of individuals from the great state of WV who visit this forum. It is a distinct possibility that one of our betting brethren is related to or know a family member or friend of one of the victims. Pointing fingers and laying blame isn't helping anyone associated with this tragedy.. Let's keep our thoughts and prayers with the family's involved...

What a tragedy...

Fat & Sassy - Wheeling WV

 

[yyz]

I just watched the movie "The Paper" a couple nights ago, and it is exactly about this kind of thing.

Run what you got, and if it's wrong, you make a retraction in the morning. Everyone wants to be the first to get the story out.

Now, I see Jack's point. Live television is going to catch the guy saying, "Hey! They're alive!"

Now, after that, it's up to them to make sure the news is correct. "We have unconfirmed reports......", whatever, but you get someone on it, right? And only if this was caught live on air!

If this was something they heard, but it was off camera, then someone dropped the ball in the name of being the first to air a story.

I didn't see any of this unfold last night, so I don't know what happened. But, yes......it is too bad that it happened like that.

 

[GM]

In my previous career I worked in a radio newsroom for many years. Let me just say, if you are SHOCKED and AMAZED that the media goes with unconfirmed stories then you've been living under a rock for a long time. That is not reality. That's just some fantasy world in your head. You also don't have the first clue about how a TV or radio station is run. Damn near everything we aired was unconfirmed in some way or another!!

This is reality: You cannot be competitive sitting on the sidelines. At some point you have to make a trade-off and go with what you have, ensuring that anything you THINK may not be 100% accurate is prefaced that way. But if you are confident you are being given accurate information from a credible source you go with it.

Media doesn't wait for a story to be "over" before they start reporting on it. The media doesn't wait for 100% of the facts to be completely verified before going to air. These stations would be out of business and reporting the news YEARS after it happened if that is your expectation.

CNN received incorrect information, and obviously felt that the info was credible. The source likely WAS a credible person who was simply mistaken. PEOPLE MAKE MISTAKES. It's up to CNN to verify the people they get their info from are credible sources....but if they ARE credible, and those sources make mistakes, you can't blame the media for it. Blame that human being up the line that made the mistake in the first place.

To expect CNN to hold off on this story and not report there were any survivors until they got to meet each and every one of them in person and shake their hands....well, don't hold your breath. This sort of thing is never going to happen.

It is a shame things unfolded this way. But no matter how careful you are, things like this will still happen.

 

[GM]

...print media on the other hand is guilty as can be since they certainally had time to verify things before going to press.

How do you know this? Do you know what time their deadline is? Do you think they can just yell out "Stop the Presses!!" like in the movies and shut down operations while someone rewrites a story for 15 minutes and re-inserts it? By the time this turned around not only were the papers printed, but they were in trucks, on airplanes, in newspaper boxes, etc. This is every editor's nightmare, but sometimes it happens. Are they supposed to tell all the trucks to come back for the new version of the news? Decide they'll just put out the paper 3 or 4 hours late because there was a mistake in it? They can't do that. They have firm deadlines, and once it's passed it's passed and there's nothing that can be done about it.

I am positive that the editors at these newspapers were PISSED AS HELL that they were sending out an erroneous story. They don't want to lose credibility or look like complete fools. In no way does it benefit a newspaper to put out wrong information. But if it made it out there, believe me, there was no way for it to be fixed at that point.

 

[JOSHNAUDI]

1st amendment protects freedom of speech, not freedom of fact.

As demonstrated in this very thread...

 

[yyz]

I am positive that the editors at these newspapers were PISSED AS HELL that they were sending out an erroneous story. They don't want to lose credibility or look like complete fools. In no way does it benefit a newspaper to put out wrong information. But if it made it out there, believe me, there was no way for it to be fixed at that point.

I think they did x's 2.........