Disaster Undermined

Poynter faculty members Scott Libin, Aly Colón, Bob Steele and Kelly McBride reflect on the issues raised by the mining coverage. Scott Libin, Poynter Leadership Faculty, writes: This case reminds us of a lesson we learned, at least in part, from Hurricane Katrina: Even when plausibly reliably sources such as officials pass along information, journalists should press for key details --...

When newsrooms around the country got word from West Virginia that the trapped miners were believed to be alive late Tuesday and early Wednesday, editors were faced with a big decision with little time to make it. Before learning that all but one of the miners were actually dead, many papers opted for headlines that were big and bold. "THEY'RE ALIVE," proclaimed the St. Petersburg Times, which is...

Most readers of The Kansas City Star saw an erroneous headline Wednesday on Page A-1: "12 miners alive after 41 hours." As we now know, only one worker survived a West Virginia mining accident. The Star prints in the middle of the night, enabling carriers to deliver papers by early morning. I heard from several upset readers Wednesday, most of whom felt The Star rushed the good news to print in a...

Maybe the reporters on the ground in West Virginia were just plain tired. Or maybe they themselves were swept up in the euphoria and wanted to believe. Otherwise, it's hard to explain how the erroneous news of the survival and rescue of 12 of the 13 miners caught underneath the ground in Sago, West Virginia made it to the front pages of our nation's papers this morning. A close reading of the...

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...