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One last word on all the finger-pointing surrounding the media’s coverage of the West Virginia mining tragedy (we hope it’s the last). Editor & Publisher’s Joe Strupp and Greg Mitchell are keeping the heat turned up on what they clearly see as a monumental mistake made by the bulk of the nation’s news media. Today, they’re diving into just what sources were relied upon for running with the stories that the twelve miners had survived:

“What information actually came out during those fateful three hours, starting late Tuesday? Did reporters misinterpret what they heard or fail to raise doubts about credibility? What was most surprising in the many follow-up stories today was how few fresh details were added about sourcing -- including any mention of a single new source not already identified. Despite repeated attempts by E&P to reach reporters at the scene, none have yet responded.”

There’s no doubt that the media hype machine went into overdrive during those wee hours of Wednesday morning. A lot more couching, qualifiers and caution would have served everyone much better. But does the world of journalism have no room for understandable human error? Does this episode warrant the sort of flogging being delivered by some? Put into context, this hardly can be put into the same column as other media failings past and present.



Yes, for about three hours in the middle of the night, the media as a whole reported information that simply and totally wrong. But so did rescue workers, government officials and citizens of the town who were elated by the prospect of a miraculous event. Is it really that inexcusable to report what you know – or at least what you think you know?



A reader of Jim Romenesko’s media Web site makes the point in an interesting way, writing:

“To all the editors all across America who apologized to their readers for messing up on the West Virginia mine story and have taken on the burden of responsibility of having the wrong story, I have two questions:



Did you run a story today about Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke? If you
did, how did you and your staff independently verify that the wire services
have the story right? (We all know how unreliable information out of the
Middle East can be, even from Israel).

That may be reaching a little. But just a little.

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As we noted earlier, the criticism is already pouring in for the media’s collective handling of the West Virginia mine tragedy. How, many are surely wondering, could the cable networks, wire services and Web sites have been so misinformed? How could they report, even on the front pages of this morning’s newspapers, that twelve miners had been rescued when, in fact, only one survived?



Instead of asking those questions, ask yourself this: How would you, as a reporter, producer or editor have handled the situation? This wasn’t simply going with information from sources that went unchecked, this was covering a breaking news situation, which included covering hours of public celebration by family members who claimed they had been told of a miraculous rescue. Here’s a rough timeline of how the story unfolded late last night and early this morning:

Just before midnight eastern time, according to Editor & Publisher, "newspaper reporters and anchors such as Rita Crosby [MSNBC] interviewed euphoric loved ones and helped spread the news about the miracle rescue [of 12 of 13 trapped coal miners in West Virginia]. Newspaper Web sites announced the happy news and many put it into print for Wednesday right at late deadlines." Most of these reports did not point out that the mine company had not confirmed these reports.

Those reports continued until about 2:45, when a West Virginia woman interrupted Anderson Cooper's broadcast on CNN to say that the miners were dead. "Cooper initially seemed skeptical of her comments, and nervous about repeating them on-air," writes TV Newser. "But as he heard screaming from the church, and he saw other family members crying down the road, he realized it was true." MSNBC followed the report a few minutes later, and Fox News a few minutes after that, with the grim news.

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Perhaps not since “Dewey Defeats Truman” has the nation awoken to newspaper headlines so wrong. “Alive! Miners beat odds” screams the USA Today, reporting that twelve West Virginia miners trapped by an explosion had been rescued after 41 hours. Many other papers, including The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times carried similar information. And it was the news many cable news watchers drifted off to sleep to as well, as happy family members told of their joy and relief.



We now know that news turned dramatically in the wee hours of the morning, after several hours of celebration, the families and the press learned that all but one of those miners were dead. What has followed this morning has been a lot of confusion, not to mention plenty of anger directed at officials in charge of the rescue operation and the media. Exactly how the misinformation got out and became so widely accepted is not yet clear. What is evident though is we’re in for a day of examination. PE will get back to this story with more a little later, but we leave you with this opening shot at the press from Editor & Publisher’s Greg Mitchell:

“In one of the most disturbing and disgraceful media performances of this type in recent years, television and newspapers carried the tragically wrong news late Tuesday and early Wednesday that 12 of 13 trapped coal miners in West Virginia had been found alive and safe. Hours later they had to reverse course, often blaming the mix-up on ‘miscommunication.’”

What do you think?

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