They're Alive!

[no1tovote4]

12 of the miners were found alive tonight! Terry Helms (or Holmes, can't quite hear it in the live reports) was the only casualty of the 13 miners trapped in WV. He was the fire boss of the crew trapped in the mine.

When he was found dead, most of the hope was lost for those of their family on the surface.

 

[insein]

just saw. Thank God. Prayers go out to terry's family and to all the families of the other miners. Semi happy ending.

 

[Avatar4321]

11 of 12 are dead

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060104/ap_on_re_us/mine_explosion

 

[Jimmyeatworld]

11 of 12 are dead

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060104/ap_on_re_us/mine_explosion

HUGE snafu on someone's part. They still haven't figured out who put out the word that they were all alive but one. The families are obviously pissed and already threatening with law suits. To wait all that time and go from elation to shock and sorrow has got the be one of the most horrible feelings on the world.

 

[Annie]

I have to agree. I stayed up late, waiting for news on my dad and for the news conference. I fell asleep with the 'good news' and awoke to find the numbers were reversed. Luckily my dad came home from the hospital, around 4 am.

I feel so bad for those families. It doesn't seem like anyone deliberately set this up, but the company is going to have to explain why them seemed to have gotten the corrected report, but waited for so long to deliver the news. My guess, it's hard news to tell.

 

[no1tovote4]

I woke up around three this morning to hear on the radio that they all died but one. What a terrible thing to happen during such a tragedy! I can't fathom what those families have gone through.

 

[insein]

awww man. That freakin sucks. I can see where the miscommunication could happen though. Families were so overjoyed when they heard the news that "they found the miners." They didnt really listen to whether or not they were alive. Tragic all around.

Gonna be even more tragic when they get lawyers involved.

 

[krisy]

How devestating. I sat up and watched late until the news came that they were alive. I watched for a while feeling so happy for those people. I woke up at about quarter of four to a news conference that they were wrong and 12 of the 13 were dead. I couldn't believe it. It brought tears to my eyes. I sat up and watched for a half an hour and went back to sleep depressed. God bless those miners and their families. It sounds like the survivor may have a long recovery, but has a good chance.

 

[dmp]

What an amazing story of survival. Thank God for that One survivor. Misinformation didn't kill the others...let's not lose focus on what's REALLY important.

 

[krisy]

What an amazing story of survival. Thank God for that One survivor. Misinformation didn't kill the others...let's not lose focus on what's REALLY important.

Very true. The media has been more focused on someone's head then that one survivor IMO.

 

[Gem]

Actually...I think that once we properly mourn the loss of these men...we need to move on to a bigger discussion of the responsibility of the media to report accurate news...even if it means waiting a bit to get something confirmed before you start shouting about it on the tv.

Geraldo Rivera was screeching about miracles...THANK GOD, THANK GOD...on Fox News...because he had heard the 12 out of 13 survived rumor on the street....he now is claiming that the news agencies were victims of this misinformation just like the families were...

I'm sorry...but Geraldo, Fox, CNN, USA TODAY, and the NYT were NOT down in West Virgina to experience the situation alongside the families. They were there to ACCURATELY report the news.

When Kennedy was assassinated Dan Rather was on the ground and reported to Chronkite that he was assassinated...Chronkite didn't burst into tears and report that news immediately...he waited, and told the American public he would continue to wait...until he had confirmation.

Now...I heard someone say that the Mayor of WV came out and was talking about the great miracle...and if so that is definetly a respected source. But Geraldo and others did not get their cue from a reputable source....they heard to gossip on the ground and wanted to get it out to their station as soon as possible...and that is a problem.

When are we going to hold our news agencies...be they tv, radio, print...accountable for the incorrect infor they print, report? Retractions get shoved to page 18...and in cases such as this, I don't think that is good enough.

We have become a society that is getting our news from sensationalist sources all trying to be the "1st with the worst." It is disgusting...and it becomes glaringly apparent in terrible situations like this.

My heart goes out to the families of these miners...my brain however, would like this to be used to re-evaluate what we are letting the MSM get away with.

 

[Mr. P]

Actually...I think that once we properly mourn the loss of these men...we need to move on to a bigger discussion of the responsibility of the media to report accurate news...even if it means waiting a bit to get something confirmed before you start shouting about it on the tv.

Geraldo Rivera was screeching about miracles...THANK GOD, THANK GOD...on Fox News...because he had heard the 12 out of 13 survived rumor on the street....he now is claiming that the news agencies were victims of this misinformation just like the families were...

I'm sorry...but Geraldo, Fox, CNN, USA TODAY, and the NYT were NOT down in West Virgina to experience the situation alongside the families. They were there to ACCURATELY report the news.

When Kennedy was assassinated Dan Rather was on the ground and reported to Chronkite that he was assassinated...Chronkite didn't burst into tears and report that news immediately...he waited, and told the American public he would continue to wait...until he had confirmation.

Now...I heard someone say that the Mayor of WV came out and was talking about the great miracle...and if so that is definetly a respected source. But Geraldo and others did not get their cue from a reputable source....they heard to gossip on the ground and wanted to get it out to their station as soon as possible...and that is a problem.

When are we going to hold our news agencies...be they tv, radio, print...accountable for the incorrect infor they print, report? Retractions get shoved to page 18...and in cases such as this, I don't think that is good enough.

We have become a society that is getting our news from sensationalist sources all trying to be the "1st with the worst." It is disgusting...and it becomes glaringly apparent in terrible situations like this.

My heart goes out to the families of these miners...my brain however, would like this to be used to re-evaluate what we are letting the MSM get away with.

Ya know what I heard last night? The media had NOTHING to report, so they ran with it (nothing).

I heard them trying hard to find something to say, to report. It went something like this, ..”John, you're only 100 feet from me and just over there is the church, and just back over there is the mine”. Huh?

They were desperate to report something before anyone else did…The scoop, Not the News!

MSM is a joke these days.IMO

 

[no1tovote4]

The first one that is patient but gets it right every time will win my viewership. That includes actually checking information before reporting it as well. No more of this Rathergate crap, no more of this guessing.

With this story and the Abramoff story, all there is going for the newsies is guessing. I have read ten stories about Abramoff and all of them guess a different number of Senators in the mix. One was 17 the highest guess was 60, guesswork is not news, nor is reporting rumor without confirmation.

 

[BATMAN]

The media needs to have their butt handed to them for this. If I run out of a church yelling "I'm a squid," is the media going to report that without some kind of verification?

 

[Jimmyeatworld]

awww man. That freakin sucks. I can see where the miscommunication could happen though. Families were so overjoyed when they heard the news that "they found the miners." They didnt really listen to whether or not they were alive. Tragic all around.

Gonna be even more tragic when they get lawyers involved.

That's what I thought at first, but they were told specifically that 12 of the miners were alive and would be on their way to the church to see their families before going on to the hospital.

I've heard it described as being like the telephone game, and I figure that's probably about what happened. One person said they found the miners, another person assumed that meant they were alive, and things were added on to it from there. I'd be willing to bet the word didn't even come from the company, the government, or the rescue workers, but from some guy that was just standing around. We went through the same kind of situation with the fire recently, getting conflicting reports about where it was and where it was headed. Unfortunately, here we have something that involves peoples lives that ended up plastered on newspapers across the country.

 

[Bonnie]

The first one that is patient but gets it right every time will win my viewership. That includes actually checking information before reporting it as well. No more of this Rathergate crap, no more of this guessing.

With this story and the Abramoff story, all there is going for the newsies is guessing. I have read ten stories about Abramoff and all of them guess a different number of Senators in the mix. One was 17 the highest guess was 60, guesswork is not news, nor is reporting rumor without confirmation.

They need something to fill up 24/7

 

[Jimmyeatworld]

When are we going to hold our news agencies...be they tv, radio, print...accountable for the incorrect infor they print, report? Retractions get shoved to page 18...and in cases such as this, I don't think that is good enough.

I think this may finally do it. Election coverage changed somewhat after they let Florida bounce back and forth between Gore and Bush in 2000, but not much was done about actual news coverage. CBS took the Clinton approach to taking responsibility with the National Guard story, "we were wrong, but..."

This is different. There is nothing to hide behind and no fingers to point. When EVERY news source gets it wrong, and it basically spits in the face of a grieving community, there's no dancing around it. I expect there to be much less emphasis on being first with a story.

Oddly, I can remember when Princess Diana died and ABC news put off confirming that she had died until they knew for sure. So it hasn't been all that long since tact was put above glory in the news community.

 

[Yurt]

It is my understanding that the folks up top knew within 20 minutes that the report of "alive" was incorrect. What I find unconscionable, is that they waited 3 hours to inform the family of this.

When dealing with life and death, severe emotions are involved. To me, this looks like negligent infliction of emotional distress. If they would have immediately relayed that the reports "are" or "might" be wrong, this would not have made big news, nor would the families have been so devasted.

3 hours of bliss to have it snatched away by someone who could have told you almost immediately has got to suck.

As to lawsuits for this:

I am unsure. But I am sure that if lawsuits come, the money (because they have already received a public apology, tearful I read, from the bosses) will never truly compensate and it will only make matters worse. Trust me, those people will never, ever make that same mistake again, so a lawsuit seems to me to only serve a vindictive "healing."

 

[Jimmyeatworld]

It is my understanding that the folks up top knew within 20 minutes that the report of "alive" was incorrect. What I find unconscionable, is that they waited 3 hours to inform the family of this.

When dealing with life and death, severe emotions are involved. To me, this looks like negligent infliction of emotional distress. If they would have immediately relayed that the reports "are" or "might" be wrong, this would not have made big news, nor would the families have been so devasted.

3 hours of bliss to have it snatched away by someone who could have told you almost immediately has got to suck.

It certainly does suck. From what I've heard, when word that 12 of the miners were found alive got to the families, the rescue workers and the company still didn't know for sure how many were alive and how many were dead. Their reason they gave for holding off on telling the families anything was they wanted to wait until they knew something for sure. Maybe they were thinking at the time that they would know something sooner than 3 hours later. I guess it's questionable if that was the right decision, but in a way I do understand their reasoning.

As to lawsuits for this:

I am unsure. But I am sure that if lawsuits come, the money (because they have already received a public apology, tearful I read, from the bosses) will never truly compensate and it will only make matters worse. Trust me, those people will never, ever make that same mistake again, so a lawsuit seems to me to only serve a vindictive "healing."

Money can never truly compensate for the death of a loved one. After the initial heat of the moment, some of the families came back and said they realized there was no conscience effort of the company's part to cause them harm. Still, I'm sure that isn't the opinion of all involved, and I do expect there to be law suits, for better or for worse.

 

[Yurt]

It certainly does suck. From what I've heard, when word that 12 of the miners were found alive got to the families, the rescue workers and the company still didn't know for sure how many were alive and how many were dead. Their reason they gave for holding off on telling the families anything was they wanted to wait until they knew something for sure. Maybe they were thinking at the time that they would know something sooner than 3 hours later. I guess it's questionable if that was the right decision, but in a way I do understand their reasoning.



Money can never truly compensate for the death of a loved one. After the initial heat of the moment, some of the families came back and said they realized there was no conscience effort of the company's part to cause them harm. Still, I'm sure that isn't the opinion of all involved, and I do expect there to be law suits, for better or for worse.

That is a good point. Hindsite is 20/20. It just seems that a quick: there has been a communication, we are not sure if all are alive, would have put and end to their celebrations, for they would have been right back where they were twenty minutes before, not 3 hours later.

IMHO.