When I went to bed last night, the news out of West Virginia was that 12 miners had survived after being trapped by a mine explosion. When the radio alarm went off this morning before dawn, I heard a news announcer saying the miners were dead. Our headline and story on the front page – "Miracles happen in West Virginia" – were dreadfully wrong. Of course I wanted to know how this happened, and I knew our readers would as well.
The story we published, from the Associated Press, quoted the governor of West Virginia and a high-level state official, both on the record, saying 12 miners were alive and being examined. Relatives were celebrating and singing hymns. The story noted that the mine owner, International Coal Group Inc., had not confirmed that the miners were alive. But neither had company officials done anything to contradict the reports - and it appears they took several hours to set the record straight.
Here at The N&O, we headed into the evening with a story on the rescue efforts and the bad news earlier in the day saying high levels of toxic carbon monoxide had been found in the mine. Later, the news was that one miner had been found dead.
Around midnight, reports from many sources said 12 miners were alive. We ran with The Associated Press story. Over the next couple of hours, the AP sent a series of "write-throughs" (updated versions of the story with additional information). Just before 2 a.m., The N&O's presses started up for the final edition run. At 2:57 a.m. Eastern time, the AP moved an alert saying the miners were reported dead. A few minutes later, the last papers rolled off our press.
The families that were jubilant late last night are grieving this morning. Our web site has carried updates throughout, and we'll look for more explanation and detail for tomorrow's paper. We'll also be talking here about our decision process.
Front pages across the country reflect what happened when. West Coast papers have the later story, many East Coast editions report the miners alive. You can check them out at the Freedom Forum Newseum web site's front page collection here.
