America awoke today to the devastating news that 12 of the 13 miners trapped in West Virginia had died, even after it was reported last night- following the word of the state's governor and the president of the mining company- that the 12 had survived. Reportedly, the misrepresentation occurred when mining company officials misheard the voice of a rescue worker over a speaker phone.
Clearly, there was failure on a massive level here, and it's necessary at this juntcure to get to the bottom of it. But if you go by reaction I heard on talk radio and saw on some blogs this morning, it's just one more opportunity to bash "MSM," as though mistakes made by the media are somehow a bigger story than the fact that a dozen people are dead. The reporters weren't able to actually go into the mine to see what was happening- so they listened to the word of the government officials and mining company executives, some of whom lied directly to them. The governor, honestly, probably has to resign at this point- and I wouldn't recommend buying stock in International Coal Group anytime soon either.
For some MSM-haters the biggest story of Hurricane Katrina was not the death of hundreds of people or the destruction of a major city- it was that "MSM" incorrectly reported a few things about what was going on there. For them, at this point it's really reached a level of postmodernism- no news story is ever more important than "MSM"'s coverage of that story.
A FEW things?
Posted by: Jim Treacher at January 4, 2006 06:12 PMI think the biggest thing out of Katrina (and demonstrated in the mine incident as well) is that you really can't trust public officials when they are making statements about things with which they really are not qualified to make statements about.
No one is to be blamed. Just another journalism lesson which reminds REPORTERS to continue sifting for the TRUTH.
Posted by: Jeff S at January 5, 2006 12:47 AMI hope you are joking BLOGGER about saying the governor should quit for this...the tragedy isn't really that the wrong news was given, but that people weren't told the truth for 3 hours meaning the families of the dead workers. And if a governor should quit for that, then alot of other politicians should give up their post for worse reasons.
Posted by: A at January 8, 2006 07:21 AM