Note to media:

[MichaelHarris]

This is what happens when you fail to fact check, this is what happens when you rely on false information, this is what happens when you "jump the gun". Families and friends have been hurt by your hunger for news, your need to beat the competition. Twelve families relied on you to provide the truth, twelve families were hurt by your craving for news, twelve families learned a painful lesson.

Whether it's a missing teenager in Aruba or a Scott Peterson, your desire to report fact-less news has been seen by the world just as it was seen in the run up to war. You tramped through the desert being fed "facts" by a war machine that needed you to promote a war, your need to report a miracle is no less a sham than your reporting of weapons never found.

We, the people of the world now see you are only in it for the ratings, only for the desire to report miracles, and only to promote a failed administration. You will be held accountable, the people of West Virginia and the families of the fallen now want you to report the truth. The truth that the media of old knew, the truth you seemed to have forgotten.

Michael Harris

Added below:

Sorry, let me clarify:
I wrote this to show all of the media's desire to "find" news, to report first, and to beat the competitor. Parallels can be drawn between the media's reporting of drums of "WMDs", vials of "Anthrax", and "nuclear programs" that didn't exist. Certainly the Governor and the mine company failed to notify the families of their loss but it was also the media's responsibility NOT to report the news to the world until they had solid proof.

The place where the media failed, just as they did with false stories from Iraq was not confirming the reports before airing them. It's important to remember this is the media that promoted a false war knowing full well that war increases ratings, it's all about ratings and being first. This need to be first has once again shown the world what is wrong with the media in this modern age, and that is the lack of fact checking. Do you think someone such as Edward R Murrow would have reported the false story of the miners being found alive without knowing for sure they were alive? Look back on some old news stories from his time, I'll even give you "Dewey Defeats Truman", you won't find many mistakes such as this. The news people of old had integrity, a need to report the truth, a need to be factual.

Just look back in the early days of the Iraq war, remember the image of Geraldo holding a mason jar of "anthrax". and remember, it turned out to be bleach. Remember Fox News having Geraldo reporting on a battle in which he was 1000 of miles away from. Never forget Geraldo staging a scene from Hurricane Katrina with that old woman. Fox is bad, we'll never be able to hold them accountable but some of the others still have a thread of decency, they should have verified the reports of survivors or waited until they had the facts.

These miners are "The Salt of the Earth" they deserved better.

[Oeditpus Rex]

1. Twelve families likely got the news before CNN did

CNN got it from mine officials, the governor of West Virginia, a Congresswoman and others on the scene. In journalism, that's called "confirmation."

Somebody fucked up in this, but it wasn't CNN.

[Skittles]

2. see I did not see that

I kept reading "not confirmed by mine officials or the governor's office".

[EFerrari]

5. It seems it was, in part. The families waited for three hours

for confirmation -- after a spokesman told them they'd be back in 20 minutes.

Why didn't CNN know that?

[Oeditpus Rex]

7. Likely for the most common reason news organizations

don't know a lot of stuff: nobody told them.

[Beware the Beast Man]

6. As much as I despise the media's handling of this story,

you have a point.

[cornermouse]

3. Wait a minute.

The media is certainly responsible for a lot of what's gone on, but in this case, I think the corporation should take most of the responsibility for this "miscommunication"; especially if the corporate representatives really did go to the church and tell the families that there were survivors (plural) as has been stated.

[lesab]

4. unfortunately

I think that the reporting was correct up to the point of bringing the survivors up. I don't believe that the rescuers would report survivors if they were dead. I don't believe that the command center would tell the families to wait for them at the church if they were all dead and I don't get why the co said they died of carbon monoxide poison when the survivor tested negative. I heard the doc say so myself.

Is it possible that they died AFTER they were found alive?

Edited to add:

I just watched the CNN footage of the lady coming straight from the church and telling Anderson Cooper the story she said "he said the other eleven couldn't be saved". That is what the ceo said according to the lady on CNN.

Couldn't be saved is different than were found dead.

[jannyk]

11. Is it possible that the

bore hole they drilled earlier dissipated the carbon monoxide and allowed his body to re-oxiginate itself? The damage done by the CM would not be undone but after hours of breathing 'fresh air' would the CM be gone from his bloodstream?

Is that feasible?

[WernhamHogg]

8. I don't know

I was watching CNN and they had the cousin (??) of one of the deceased miners on. She said that it was a rep (president?) of the company who had come to the church and told them that the 12 were still living and that they would be bringing the surviving miners to the church. I think that the company gave the families the wrong information and the families spread the false news to the media (instead of the media spreading the false information to the families).

[lesab]

9. spreading the news

I agree with you...

[MichaelHarris]

10. Sorry, let me clarify

I wrote this to show all of the media's desire to "find" news, to report first, and to beat the competitor. Parallels can be drawn between the media's reporting of drums of "WMDs", vials of "Anthrax", and "nuclear programs" that didn't exist. Certainly the Governor and the mine company failed to notify the families of their loss but it was also the media's responsibility NOT to report the news to the world until they had solid proof.

The place where the media failed, just as they did with false stories from Iraq was not confirming the reports before airing them. It's important to remember this is the media that promoted a false war knowing full well that war increases ratings, it's all about ratings and being first. This need to be first has once again shown the world what is wrong with the media in this modern age, and that is the lack of fact checking. Do you think someone such as Edward R Murrow would have reported the false story of the miners being found alive without knowing for sure they were alive? Look back on some old news stories from his time, I'll even give you "Dewey Defeats Truman", you won't find many mistakes such as this. The news people of old had integrity, a need to report the truth, a need to be factual.

Just look back in the early days of the Iraq war, remember the image of Geraldo holding a mason jar of "anthrax". and remember, it turned out to be bleach. Remember Fox News having Geraldo reporting on a battle in which he was 1000 of miles away from. Never forget Geraldo staging a scene from Hurricane Katrina with that old woman. Fox is bad, we'll never be able to hold them accountable but some of the others still have a thread of decency, they should have verified the reports of survivors or waited until they had the facts.

These miners are "The Salt of the Earth" they deserved better.

[lesab]

12. absolutely

Everybody deserves better than this. These people were treated abominably and I feel great pity for them and their plight.

[WernhamHogg]

13. OK

I see your point now. I do agree with some of what you are saying. Yes, the news networks SHOULD have found a way to confirm the "12 alive" story. However, the information was coming from the families who received the information from the corporation. Why would CNN not believe what the families were telling them?

I do think that CNN SHOULD have said that the reports of 12 survivors were "unconfirmed", but I still think that the corporation is much more liable for the damage caused by the false reports than CNN or any other of the networks.

Edit: Sorry, I reread your post again and now I understand and agree completely with what you are saying.

[lesab]

14. true

I hope that somehow, someway, those people get theirs.

[MichaelHarris]

15. certainly

the corporation is much more liable for all that has happened. It's funny, the Fox guy is apoligizing on the air right now for his mistakes. Maybe he reads DU :)

[LittleClarkie]

16. We didn't mind off the cuff info when it was Katrina

They're not gods. They were doing the best they could. They got their info the same way the families did, and they got the new news in the same way as well.

I'm pretty sure, listening to the reports, the families didn't hear the false info from the media. And that's all I care about. The family. I'm upset. I could have done without the false info. But whoever told the families the false info is who I am really mad at. And I'm pretty sure it was the company that did that, and then left them hanging for three hours with false hope.

That's who the families are blaming, it seems. The company. I shall not dispute them.

[MichaelHarris]

17. I'm really speaking for members of the families

who might not have lived in the area, members either to far away are too poor to travel to West Virginia. We tend to think of the families members on the scene, we forget that there may be others spread across the country.

Blaming the company is the right thing to do, I don't deny that but to question the media's reporting of a "fact" that turned out false should be questioned.

[jannyk]

18. The governor is also

complicit. He admitted that he went to the mine entrance when he left the jubilation at the church and was informed at the same time as the corp execs that the good news was untrue. Where was he for those 2 plus hours?

As much as I despise the MSM, this one was not their doing. The loud cheers from the mine entrance, the bells and jubilation at the church - only then did CNN report what they were told was happening. What were they supposed to do? Ignore it? Even the doctor at the hospital said she was ready and waiting for the rest of the rescued miners.

This was a grade A fuck up, but for once, it wasn't the media's doing. It was an overheard miscommunication (albeit a bizarre one) compounded by the execs and the governor. Why they kept the tuth to themselves for nearly 3 hours and thought they were doing the families a favor in the process, I'll never comprehend. It was beyond cruel.

[LittleClarkie]

19. That was my impression as well

Though I didn't know about the Governor. Cooper looked to be doing an "as it happens" report, recording what he was hearing and seeing as it was happening. He caught the rumor as it went by, I'm assuming. I didn't see that, but I did see the footage of the woman coming up to him to tell him what was happening in the church.

He seemed to be getting it like we were, and the families were, piecemeal.