First thoughts on the mining disaster

If the North Pole edition had “1 Dead” what’s the excuse for the Brookline edition that declared “Jubilation in W Va.”?

newseum.org has everyone’s front page and the vast majority have the 12 found alive, including the herald’s “miner miracle” and the globe’s six-column across the top treatment.as for blaming the media, seems to me the families were the ones spreading word all 12 were found alive. most reports have them overhearing cellphone conversations and then screaming out the word. i don’t blame them for wishing for a miracle and reacting out of hope, but the word came from them, not the other way around.

I also received the “North Pole” edition of the Globe. But in addition I also read the “Sunrise Edition” of the Lowell Sun which did have the jubilant story that 12 miners were found alive. However, unlike web page of the Globe (and I guess most others) the Sun’s web page not only has no corrections but it still has YESTERDAY’S (!) headlines with nary an iota of today’s news of ANY sort.

Rather than ideologues using this as an opportunity to bash Bush, this strikes me as a “moment of truth” for the newly reduced staff at the Globe.(They failed). Running with AP copy without following up to verify had the expected result. Perhaps they needed more people to do a proper job but wire copy doesn’t cut it. Another example? Today’s Globe has a piece on the first non-journalist to run Dow Jones Corp. and the WSJ. They totally missed the local angle on this Bentley College grad. If I want AP wires alone, I sure don’t need to keep taking the Globe.

My print edition of the Chicago Trib has a huge headline, 12 miners rescured accross front page with picture of joyful family.My wife can’t look at it.I’ve seen people fired for calling News Radio here in Chicago with rumors that turned out to be false stories about fatalities from fires at work.It’s strange the whole press could have fallen for this but I can only guess it was a desire to believe good news, and a failure on the Mine and States part to aggressively stop that instict.I think a desire to believe all sorts of things is destroying MSM’s judgement all over. The Mines PR people should have acted quiker but the Press sure should have been jumping on the PR people to confirm the story.

Fortunately, though, by cutting its national desk, the Globe is helping the NYT meet its profit expectations and for that we should all be thankful, instead of getting hung up on little eensy weensy matters like the accuracy of the top headline on page A-1.

TALLMANSVILLE, W.Va. (AP) — A coal company executive says it became clear within 20 minutes that the news anxious family members had received about the survival of a dozen trapped miners was terribly wrong.Yet for three hours, church bells rang in celebration, families joined arm-in-arm to sing joyous hymns, the governor proclaimed it a miracle, and television newscasts and newspapers spread the word around the world.When the truth finally unfolded early Wednesday, with families members called back and told the 12 were actually dead and only one miner survived, joy turned instantly to fury and a scuffle broke out when relatives lunged at a coal company official.International Coal Group Inc. chief executive Ben Hatfield said families were not told of the mistake until three hours later because officials wanted to have all the information right first.”Let’s put this in perspective. Who do I tell not to celebrate? I didn’t know if there were 12 or one (who were alive). Until we had people who could measure the vital signs … we didn’t want to put the families through another roller coaster,” Hatfield said.Neither Hatfield nor Gov. Joe Manchin would say who was responsible for the misinformation, but Hatfield told reporters that he believed someone overheard communications from rescuers who had been communicating from a special mine phone after they reached the bodies.Whoever overheard misunderstood the information and someone relayed it to the families, Hatfield said.That word came just before midnight, and to relatives who feared the worst about the 13 miners trapped 260 feet underground following Monday’s explosion, it was as if their prayers had been answered.”A person said, ‘There are miracles — 12 alive and one dead!”’ said John Casto, who was inside the church when the man he couldn’t identify ran to the front of the church and made the proclamation. ”They started clapping, hollering and shouting.”Several relatives, who danced and praised God as the church bells rang, said an unidentified mine foreman had called someone at the church on a cell phone to relay the information.A few minutes later, Casto said Wednesday, another man — he doesn’t know who — came to church and said squads cars would pick up the miners and bring them to the church where they would be reunited with their families. The man said ”it would be like another Christmas,” Casto said, chocking back tears.Darlene Groves, the sister-in-law of one of the miners, Jerry Groves, said the governor braced her mother-in-law from a fall during the commotion. As Darlene rushed to her mother-in-law’s aide, she touched Manchin’s sleeve and quietly asked him, ”Are all 12 men alive?””He said, yes,” Darlene Groves said Wednesday. She said no one else heard the conversation, and Manchin left for the mine to gather details.Then the families waited. Three hours later, Hatfield and Manchin appeared at the church to announce that there had been a miscommunication and all but one miner was dead.Casto said it took a while for relatives to absorb the news. And then a pastor had to tell the angry crowd to calm down.”’Whatever the hell did God do for us?”’ a young man shouted in reply, Casto said.Ann Merideth, whose father, Jim Bennett, was trapped in the mine, said she was giving thanks in the church until she learned he had died. But still, ”I don’t blame God for this,” she said.Merideth’s husband, Daniel, said family members were visibly angry and lunged at a coal company official. About a dozen state troopers and a SWAT team were positioned near the church because police were concerned about violence.”They are lucky they have the patrolmen they had,” Daniel Merideth said.Manchin spoke to The Associated Press from his cell phone shortly after relatives said they had received word the miners were safe.”The rescue people have been talking to us. They told us they have 12 alive,” Manchin said.He said later he went to the mine site to try to confirm the news when rescuers said there had been miscommunication and not all had survived.^——Associated Press writer Jennifer C. Yates and Vicki Smith in Tallmansville contributed to this report.