Over and Over again reporters would ask celebrating relatives what they had heard, and every time they said they heard it from another family member. There was never any official word or confirmation.
By far the worst was Geraldo, of course, he was so busy hugging people and crying that he wouldn't let the anchorperson ask any questions.
One Fox reporter was standing at a spot where choppers were supposed to land to evacuate the miners to rush them to the hospital. When the copters were cancelled around 1:00am, he asked paramedics why and was told that they thought that the miners were in such good shape that they weren't needed.
I thought that sounded rediculous and started to worry. Even someone healthy would be sent to hospital for observation after spending 40 hours in a cold poluted mine. I kept listening for some official verification, but there was none.
I changed channels and every channel confirmed that the miners were alive. I assumed that someone must have gotten confirmation, but was still uneasy. Before going to bed, I checked Drudge, and sure enough, next to his flashing siren, was the news of the rescued miners. I was convinced.
There are no longer any journalistic ethics. We have gone from secret sources in Watergate, to fake sources with Jason Blair, to no sources needed with Geraldo and all the others in the MSM. They say the blooers are unprofessional and unreliable.
This was a horrible thing. The only thing I'm waiting for is for it to be blamed on the Administration. If not President Bush personally, at least Elaine Chao and the Department of Labor, the MSHA in particular.
When I saw Whore-Aldo running up to the families of the miners and shoving his microphone into their faces, I flashed back to this old Kirk Douglas movie.
Ace in the Hole (AKA The Big Carnival) (1951)
Starring: Kirk Douglas, Jan Sterling Director: Billy Wilder Rating:
Storyline
Genres: Drama, Film-Noir
Plot Outline: When a man is trapped alive in a mine collapse, a self-interested reporter and the townspeople cynically create what we now call a "media circus".
Plot Synopsis: One of several literary and artistic works based on events surrounding the 1925 entrapment and death of W. Floyd Collins in Sand Cave, Ky. See also Robert Penn Warren's novel _The Cave_
http://filmforce.ign.com/articles/379/379350p1.html
Ace in the Hole (a.k.a. The Big Carnival), 1951, co-wr/dir. Billy Wilder. This is a deeply cynical Film Noir sadly based on an actual 1925 tragedy. Charles Tatum (Douglas) is a down-on-his-luck, obnoxious journalist who once worked for a big city newspaper but is now stuck at a small town paper in New Mexico. The hard-drinking Tatum finds his meal-ticket back to the big leagues when a miner named Leo Minosa becomes trapped in a cave-in.
Tatum hypes the event into a national news story, engineering a lucrative media frenzy and a despicable public circus while also duping Minosa into believing he's his savior. Even though Minosa could be rescued more quickly by shoring up the cave's tunnels, Tatum, who's eager to keep this "big carnival" in town, convinces the rescuers to employ a lengthier drilling process instead. Going along with Tatum's ambitious plan is Minosa's greedy and conniving wife (Jan Sterling) who's looking to cash in on her unanticipated notoriety. Tatum's plan, however, goes tragically awry. The final low-angle shot of Tatum collapsing into frame symbolizes his self-propelled downfall.
Ace in the Hole is a grim but eerily prescient look at the media's unquenchable thirst for "the big story" and the public's willingness to play along. Wilder mercilessly eviscerates the gawking masses that set up shop to commercialize Minosa's tragedy. Although a box office flop in its day, Ace remains a relentless indictment of the public's and the media's appetite for entertainment and fortune even at the expense of human life.
Ok, so that is the new standard in journalism, just like in Katrina coverage. You overhear a conversation and that is "news". Reminds me of that game "Gossip" we used to play. Whispering something in someone's ear and spreading what you think you heard around a circle. It's amazing what the outcome is. Now that is considered news.
Shame. The MSM should hang their head in shame, but they won't. We all know they won't.
This snip from your posted article is incredible:
"Joe Thornton, deputy secretary for the West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety, said the rescued miners were being examined at the mine shortly before midnight and would soon be taken to nearby hospitals. Mr. Thornton said he did not know details of their medical condition." It then reported family members calling it a miracle.
What I think happened is they said "We've found them, we are checking vital signs now" and someone heard "We found them, we are checking their vital signs", assuming that meant they were ok and they were checking BP and such.
The reaction and the amplification were all too human and completely understandable as is today's pallets-of-kleenes-overwroughtness. We all have a bit of the theater in us, more than a bit. And it comes out -- uncontrollably and unwisely -- at such traumatic events.
Fortunate, very fortunate, it is and we are that we have not the chance to learn from practise. For only by having such terrors come to life again and again in a community does the human tongue train to forbearance.
Just one more reason I am totally disgusted with the media today.
The "reporting" from N.O. after Katrina was bad enough, but this is even worse.
And today, all the media can do is sit around pointing fingers at everyone else, it's never the medias fault.
It's just disgusting how they are so eager to scoop anything without verifying the story first.
My local paper the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel carries the headline"Miners found Alive". This is the same paper that claimed Bush lied. My only question is how hard do we pile on. He he.
Pray for these families. They are already suffering enough.
And the media didn't learn a THING from Katrina.
You are so wrong. Haven't you heard? The MSM is staffed by proFESSionals. They went to Journalism School, which is a big building on a college campus where really smart people learn to be Journalists. And once they go to work in the Media, there's an internal vetting process that safeguards the public's right to know. Not like those icky bloggers, who don't have any of those all-important checks and balances.
Proves once again, just because they all repeat it, doesn't make it true.
If I were a family member, the first person I would punch is Anderson Cooper (aka Gloria Vanderbilt's son). That smarmy, limp-wristed dork needs to get the crap beat out of him.
Chicago has two
major papers, the Tribune
also the Sun Times.
Traditionally,
the Trib is good, the 'Times' bad.
They both lived up to
their reputations.
The Tribune's cover today
had the real story.
The Sun Times' cover
went out with no correction.
My Mom's a senior
and reads the Sun Times.
She went to breakfast thinking
the miners were safe . . .
I bought a copy of USA Today and couldn't believe the story. We caught them this time, but this makes you wonder what else they get wrong.
However, on this, they get slack. Breaking news is always the most unreliable.
In SoCal we had heard on the radio around 9PM that the other 12 miners were found alive. Watching the news about 11:15PM, the first miner brought out was taken away in the ambulance, unconscious and in critical condition. I remarked to my husband 'maybe they sent him out first because he was in the worst condition'. Didn't sleep well and awakened to find the rest were dead. Very sad---had tears in my eyes when they were reported alive. Tears in my eyes now, too.
I still can't conceive of a THREE HOUR lapse in time till the error was discovered. This is unacceptable and not professional.
What ever happened to the number one rule in reporting?
"Check your sources"
Who bothered to check with the Command Post?
sw
"paramedics why and was told that they thought that the miners were in such good shape that they weren't needed."
PARAMEDICS said that? Then they lied, or were stupid, or were lied to by those even closer to the situation.
So maybe this isn't ultimately the media's fault? However, in any case they should've verified.
This is the problem w/modern communication. Media is slap-happy about "being 1st" to report something - anything. Even if it's wrong. They "shoot 1st" and sort it out later.
Worse, w/modern technology, the falsehoods are spread fast, all over the country and the world, in an instant, and now millions believe what they were 1st told - by those supposed to know what's going on.
(Even worse, they then clamor to "do something" to fix a problem [i.e., more government rules and shackles] which seems very important because of its known immediacy even if it's happening 5000 mi away.)