2005-2014

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...

Newspapers and television stations were caught in a bind early today as heartbreaking news broke that 12 trapped miners believed to have been found alive in the Sago Mine in fact were dead. Many newspapers across the state and nation went to press late last night or early this morning with lead stories and pictures about a miraculous rescue. Dawn Dayton, managing editor of the Register-Herald in...

If you saw today's printed edition of The Eagle, you saw a front page headline and story that are flat wrong. Our paper reports this morning that miners trapped in a West Virginia coal mine since Monday were found alive late Tuesday. We now know that's not true, and in fact 12 of the miners did not survive. I'll explain why we (and newspapers across the country) went to press last night with the...

NEW YORK In one of the most disturbing and disgraceful media performances of its kind in recent years, TV news and many 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. For hours, starting just before midnight, newspaper reporters and anchors such...

It is sad to watch from Washington as The Washington Post stumbles through another embarrassing error, one aggravated by clumsy editing and internal confusion between print and online operations. Like many newspapers and broadcasters, The Post carried the tragically wrong news late last night and early today that 12 of 13 trapped coal miners in West Virginia had been found safe and alive...

TALLMANSVILLE, W.Va. -- In a bizarre chain of events, initial reports that 12 of 13 miners had survived an explosion turned out to be false as company officials reported that only one miner had been found alive. The news shocked and angered family members, who had been informed around midnight that 12 miners had been found alive. That joy lasted for only three hours. Ben Hatfield, president and...

A journalism center in Moldova has released a book that collects 75 investigative pieces produced over the past four years. "Dosarul Coruptiei," or "The Corruption Dossier," features articles on various aspects of corruption and the plight of ordinary citizens who face it. The Center of Journalistic Investigations released the book at a December 20 news conference, according to an announcement...

Women's trend stories are themselves a trend -- a trend toward trendy reporting in all kinds of media outlets, not just in the fluffy realm of "women's magazines." Trend stories don't usually call themselves trend stories, but the identifying features are unmistakable. They employ headlines with the words "new" and "next," sometimes followed by markers like "generation" or new monikers for...

DALIAN, China (UPI) -- China has reduced the six-year jail sentence given a journalist, who had written about political corruption due to good behavior and ordered the man released. The court in Dalian, in northeastern China, ordered Jiang Weiping freed, and was he reunited with family members, the BBC said. Jiang was sentenced in June 2001 on charges of illegally supplying state secrets and...

Readers of most editions of the San Antonio Express-News were heartened by the front-page news Wednesday morning that 12 of 13 miners trapped for a day and a half in a coal mine near Tallmansville, W.Va., had been rescued. The Express-News -- and many newspapers throughout the nation -- carried wire reports quoting West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, who told The Associated Press: "They told us they...