United States

In early 2004, Pat Robertson divined the outcome of the presidential election, then ten months away. "I think George Bush is going to win in a walk," he said on a broadcast of "The 700 Club." "I really believe I’m hearing from the Lord it’s going to be like a blowout election in 2004." God – or at least the fervent, all-justifying, "Christian soldier" belief in God, and of course God’s opposite...

The imperfections of the newsgathering craft were glaring this week when television viewers and newspaper readers across the country were given a joyously miraculous survival story regarding trapped West Virginia coal miners. Unfortunately, that euphoric good-news story turned out to be wrong and had to be replaced by the tragic reality that only one of the 13 miners was rescued alive. Some in our...

NEW YORK As newspapers conduct damage control after early Wednesday's error, in which most wrongly reported that 12 trapped miners had been rescued in West Virginia, many editors are defending their mistake by saying they were misled by various sources, including the state's governor. Yet, even after extensive follow-up coverage today, serious questions about the sourcing, and its use, remain. "AP...

RELATIVES of miners missing after an underground explosion in West Virginia were told they were alive – only to have their hopes dashed three hours later when it was discovered that only one of 13 men survived. Ben Hatfield, the chief executive of the International Coal Group, the mine's owners, said a "miscommunication" from inside the mine to the command centre was overheard and spread to the...

The owners of a mine in the United States say a "miscommunication" is responsible for families being told 11 dead miners had survived an explosion. The International Coal Group had announced that 12 of 13 missing miners had been found alive but the 13th man had died. However, hours later the company announced that just one miner had survived the explosion at the Sago mine in West Virginia. Ben...

Print journalists weren’t the only ones at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette who shifted with the developing story of the West Virginia miners this week. Matthew Kennedy spent the night and early morning running the paper’s online coverage of the tragedy unfolding at Sago. "Our Web site had been reflecting the course of the story," Kennedy said yesterday in a phone interview. "We had been saying that...

SAGO, W.Va. -- The storm kicked up sometime before dawn Monday, sweeping across the scabbed mountains and bare winter woods with enough ferocity to jolt people awake in this Appalachian hamlet. County Commissioner Donnie Tenney felt his blue farmhouse rattle. Thunder, he thought. The phone roused him again. It was his sister. Someone from her prayer chain had told her there had been an explosion...

There have been swift recriminations in the United States after much of the media carried the tragically wrong news that 12 of the 13 coal miners trapped in West Virginia had been found alive. News that the men had in fact died broke early on Wednesday morning, three hours after family members and the West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin had been wrongly told the miners were alive. Several US...

I cringed, along with everyone else, when I saw The Post's above-the-fold headline yesterday: "12 Found Alive in W. Va. Coal Mine." And USA Today's banner: "'Alive!' Miners Beat the Odds." And the Atlanta Journal Constitution: "12 Miners Alive." And Newsday: "Miracle in the Mine." If there's been a more heart-rending and humiliating botch of a story, I can't think of it offhand. Yes, the Chicago...

The West Virginia mine tragedy was an emotional whipsaw that ended up trapping the media – print and electronic – into authoritatively reported, but ultimately incorrect, stories. Hours after authorities announced that 12 coal miners believed to be alive were actually dead, millions awoke to newspaper headlines announcing "Miracle in the Mine" or "12 miners rescued" or simply "ALIVE!" How could...