Secrets of the City

(Photos snagged from Newseum, which is slow today because everyone seems to be hitting it for more inaccurate reportage.)

K-Talk was going to interview an editor from the PiPress about that this morning but I missed it. Wondering if anyone caught that.

I don’t think this story is a good example of this ‘accuracy battle’ considering everyone, relatives included, received the same non-media initiated misinformation. The only advantage to online sources is they can be recinded easily, although online sources still have the wrong story posted.

The strib explains itself here.

But the story was “accurate” by Dan Rather’s standards.

They just had the number of dead and alive transposed.

The head of the mining company just had an interesting news conference where he went through the whole timeline. Our time, at 10:45pm they got the first report “12 Alive!” By 11:30pm they got another report that said there was only one survivor. But the mine operations people didn’t want to believe it. It wasn’t until 1:30-2:00am our time that the mine told the families that the 11 were dead. A bad deal.

When the church bells ring, the families celebrate, and the Governor of the state shares the good news… it’s hard to blame the media for jumping the gun on this one.

Actually, it’s easy to do. They were using unconfirmed reports from the families and running with them. AP stories said, “Families are reporting 12 miners are alive. However, mining officials haven’t confirmed that.” Pretty irresponsible to run headlines based on that information.

Wow, two consecutive liberal media jabs from srhcb. Switch it up a little and give us a Clinton blow-job reference.

Yeah, I wish I could write an algorithm that weeds out predictable comments about how much the liberal media sucks. Or better yet, an algorithm that removes predictable comments based upon prior comments.

No kidding, Rex. Here’s the question: Who is the more credible source? Family members of the missing miners (direct relatives– wives, parents) or law enforcement/political officials or the mining company? I’m not sure which I would find most credible. It’s hard to get closer to the “they’re alive” issue than the family members. And the Governor is a pretty credible source. If I were a headline writer, I might have used the word “Reports:” then “12 Alive”.

One issue people may want to consider is why this was such a big news story in the first place. Sure, it was a human-interest story, but there are lots of other issues that deserve in-depth reporting.

I’m not bashing the media; I personally am a print journalist myself. What I’m saying is family members and the governor throwing out a thumbs up and a “miracles happen” quote shouldn’t be enough to run a 72-inch headline declaring success.

I dunno. I mean, did we really walk on the moon? Can you prove it?

If the friggin governor says they are safe, you gotta go with it. It’s very sad, but this is just one of those things that’s going to occasionally happen, and I can’t see a reasonable way to avoid it. If absolutely everything were verified with visual evidence by a dozen pairs of eyes, newspapers would be 90% smaller.

There are cases, of course, where this shouldn’t happen. Such as in 2004, when the NY Post threw out a 70-point “It’s Gephardt” on the day that Kerry announced his running mate would be John Edwards.

I’m not asking for every reporter to take pulses and get sight verification. AP should have waited for official information, and a thumbs up by no means rates as official. It’s inexcusable to be this painfully wrong, but I can at least see how things broke down: instant media is in demand, so everyone wants to break the story, and sometimes that means sacrificing basic standards.

All that is fine and all, but Dewey won. The newspapers said so and that Truman stole the presidency.

Earlier in the day I put the blame for this totally on the media. I have since cooled my jets and now I think the blame really has to fall with the crisis communicatons effort. I’m in the communications game; I cannot believe there was such a breakdown. In my mind, there were people involved and given information that should not have been involved or given information. The sad part is they screwed up in the wrong place.

I agree. The Families got word from a mine foreman that their relatives were alive. I don’t know how much better you want to check your facts before you print a story. Newspapers have one chance a day to get it right. Every day, they report what the condition is at around midnight the night before. Last night after the OSU-PSU football game, Nightline told me that the miners were all alive. Newspapers provide tangible product evicence of their mistakes, while broadcast can get away with frequent updates to cover the fact that, at midnight last night, they were just as wrong as their print brethern.

I also share the concern about why this is such a big story. Yesterday in Iraq, insurgents killed 50 people, making it the bloodiest day since the elections were held several weeks ago. I guess I should just be happy that we have stopped terroism on this side of the ocean in its tracks. I am getting a lot better at the whole screw the rest of the world, my happiness comes first attitude. It really gives me time to adequatley grieve for the men who struggled day in and day out to make all this greenhouse gas possible.

This paragraph ran in both the New York TImes and StarTribune “miners alive” stories:

“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.”

I realize that there were communications problems between the rescue team and the command center, but what was this guy thinking? Sounds like Mr. Thornton decided to embellish a little bit when he was talking to the press.