In what is a stunningly fast turnaround time for a Chronicle editorial, the LiveJournalists have written an apologia for yesterday’s erroneous miner story titled, “It’s Not Our Fault!”:
A West Virginia official told reporters that the miners were alive and being examined at the mine. Newspapers on Eastern and Central time zone deadlines picked up the erroneous reports of the miraculous rescue, Many, including the Chronicle, headlined them the following morning. A rescue worker was the apparent source of the misinformation that the men had been found alive. The news spread by cell phone to waiting family members.
So, which was it? A WV official or a rescue worker? Or is a rescue worker the same as a WV official? And did he (whomever) tell reporters, or did the news spread by cell phone? (Already we get the feeling this editorial is not quite ready for prime time.) And notice how the Chron admits there was herd-mentality at play? All the other newspapers did it, so the Chron did, too.
ICG President Ben Hatfield later explained to media that he had delayed informing the families of the false reports because he wanted to be certain of the fate of the miners. A more responsible and compassionate approach would have been for company officials to have immediately alerted the jubilant relatives and the media that rescue reports were unconfirmed and celebrations premature.
The media’s self-importance knows no bounds. We could turn that around and point out to the LiveJournalists that a more responsible and compassionate approach to news-telling would have been to have the story NAILED DOWN before printing presses saved the hurtful headlines for all posterity.
More troubling than the misinformation is the poor safety record at the Sago Mine before the apparent gas explosion that doomed the miners to asphyxiation.
The professional journalists who are experts at newsgathering (and who want shield laws) want you to know that you should NOT, under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, be looking at them. NO WAY! Please, please, look at the mining company! Quit looking at all those (wrong and hurtful) front page headlines on coffee tables across America and cast your eyes on the mining company!
ICG officials claim they are not responsible for the mine’s safety record, as they bought it only two months ago. However, the mine’s safety records were available to the new owners. Operations could have been suspended while problems were corrected.
Speaking of safety records, when a Chronicle vendor was killed a while back, did the Chronicle suspend newspaper sales by street vendors? No, of course not! The Chronicle said that the vendor was employed by an independent distributor and that was that. Oh, and the Chronicle sued League City for trying to enforce a ban on newspaper vendors.
That’s very safety-minded, isn’t it?
UPDATE: Here’s an excellent observation:
If bloggers had made these kinds of mistakes, Big-Media folks would be pointing them out as evidence that the blogosphere can’t be trusted. But where were all those editors, filters, and fact-checkers?
UPDATE 2: Here’s a recap of various media outlets reactions to their bungled reporting.
