Mining Horror
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Holy crap, they’re alive. Awesome.
UPDATE: Oh man. CNN is now saying that only one man survived. How the hell can they have done this to those families? To go from fear to the belief of a miracle to the most horrible pain…
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The views on this site are mine and mine alone, and do not reflect the views of my employer, Media Matters for America
© 2000-2011 Oliver Willis
HOLY FLIRKING SCHMIDT!
Now, hopefully, they can get them out!
Who are “they”?
I should clarify…
Who are “they” in the statement:
With the 24/7 media obsession with the scoop, I’m not all surprised that this insult was added to the tragedy of those grieving families.
If media hounds had no time to fact check on this story being played out internationally, just imagine…?)
Meet the press: Careless, lazy and mercenary!
Yeah, what Frank said! Because it’s never appropriate to talk about more than one aspect of an event, and the only correct aspect to talk about is the one Frank designates!
12 miners are dead… Let’s talk about CNN!
Jeebus, Oliver! Xan you ever stop beating the drum?
When does the Bush – bashing begin?
Yes. Thank you Frank, for helping us properly co-opt these people’s grief. You’ve really got it down pat. Must be your uncanny solidarity with the working man. Please let us know when we can move forward towards holding the media accountable for NOT doing their job and instead, compounding this tragedy.
I mean, silly us. Thinking the media should have first sought official confirmation before blasting the airwaves with headlines like “Miracle in the Mine”, and before pulling kids from the church to exploit their excitement over getting to see their father’s once again.
Honest question: Will you even get tired of defending failure?
Frank…
Nobody says that CNN did anything wrong.
You talk about the tragedy the families have had to deal with…well, that tragedy was compounded immeasurably by the fact that they were told–not by CNN–that their loved ones were alive. It’s a big part of the story, in the same way that a shooting rampage on Christmas Day carries a measure of extra heartache due to the timing.
It seems the rumors were spread by cell phone from people near the mining site – mostly family members themselves. Some family members overheard discussions between the command team and rescuers and thought they heard a conversation saying that 12 of the miners were alive. The rumors compounded one another and everybody believed the best. The media repeated the rumors to the world, but the media didn’t create the rumors in Tallmansville. Tragic as all of this is, it’s not uncommon in these difficult situations. It happens in war all the time, for example. Think of how often these sorts of rumors fly in Iraq after a major terrorist attack. Did so-and-so make it? Were the 20 people dead or just injured? What did the hospital say? What did the police say? Etc.
The real problem here is that the coal company knew that the rumors spread around were unwarranted within 20 minutes and didn’t say anything to quell them – at least that appears to be the case now. Assuming that’s true – that the coal company knew that the rumors of survival were false – then one has to wonder why the coal company wouldn’t say anything. Perhaps they wanted it to be true, too. Perhaps they were scared at the reaction of the families if they told them to stop celebrating. Who knows? It’s all so tragic.
Frank….
I took Oliver’s remark to mean that he learned from CNN that only one was alive, and he wondered how “they”–whichever official released the wrong info–could have been been so wrong.
Check out USA Today for a bizarre front page. “12 Miners Alive,” or words to that effect, says the headline. The story goes on, “Twelve miners were found alive and rescued…” Reporting an incorrect rumor is one thing…but they appeared to have taken the additional step of fabricating a rescue!
Is there some way for you jokers to develop a friggin’ heart? We now know that 12 miners are dead. The story, as far as I am concerned, is that 12 miners are dead, and their families and their friends have a tragedy to deal with.
The story is not, IMHO, that CNN fucked up. That can wait.
How long? How about until after the funerals?
And I thought liberals had the monopoly on compassion.
elrod, the reason the company gave for not quelling the jubilation was that they did not know how many survivors, if any, there were until a few hours later and did not want to take the family members on a continuous roller coaster ride. Although the company’s CEO cam across as very genuine I do think that between the company and the governor’s office, someone should have stated that the word of 12 survivors was not official and that they did not have confirmation of the number of survivors. I don’t believe their motives in not doing so were malicious, however.
Hedley,
I agree. I don’t think anybody was being malicious. But the CEO knew that the rumors floating throughout the town – and the world – were, at least, not confirmed. Maybe there was nothing they could do to control them. Maybe if the CEO had said, “Wait a minute, folks. We’re not sure if they’ve made it out yet. Let’s just hope that things work out, but we haven’t confirmed that the miners are alive yet,” it would have helped the situation. Or maybe, as you say, it would have just meant taking the community on an emotional rollercoaster. Who knows? The whole thing is so tragic.
Actually, Oliver, your post uses the pronoun “they” in a less than concrete fashion (as JWG noted above). I presume that you were emotional and didn’t care to check it, which is understandable.
What a terrible mess.
Nobody’s writing about CNN, Frank. Please learn to read.
SadieB: You are a liar. I said no such thing. You’re just being a bitch.
“Is there some way for you jokers to develop a friggin heart?”
Now that’s rich coming from the man who only recently was explaining to us all so patiently that the miners deserved their fate because they chose to work in the mines.
Looking back I admit I was reading between the lines when you said this:
“Orwellian (well named) would have us believe that the solution to this coal mining problem is to pay more money for every other job in the area. The actual worth of that work is irrelevant, you see, as is the relationship between the demand for coal for wages paid.”
I extended your argument further than you did — free market dictates value of coal= free market dictates value of lives spent in procuring coal, and the whole thing justified because people enter into the free market on their own free will.
It’s a classical libertarian-type argument, but it is not the argument you made and I apologoze.
CNN is now saying that only one man survived. How the hell can they have done this to those families?
Oliver, please learn to write. Unless “they” refers to FOX news.
Frank, I’m not one to defend Oliver, Redskins fan that he is, but….On this one, I think you jumped the gun a little. I was able to take his reference to “they” as whoever it was said these men were alive, and not a shot at CNN for reporting it.
I watched the coverage until very late, flipping back and forth between Fox, CNN and MSNBC. Overall, I think CNN actually did the best job covering the events, particularly the medical condition of the lone survivor.
yahoo had it wrong too
I might add that this statement, “The actual worth of that work is irrelevant, you see, as is the relationship between the demand for coal for wages paid, was sarcastic.
Coal miners are, of course paid for the danger of their work. GAP clerks, for example, are not.
Your apology is accepted.
Jay C, nonetheless the story was not, at that moment, the media’s error. It was the death of twelve men. Nothing could be more horrible, in my mind, (with the exception of losing a child) than saying goodbye to a loved one in the morning, and never seeing them alive again.
Far be it for me to defend the media, however, in this case, I don’t think anything was their fault. They reported the information they were being given as they had no way of knowing the correct information unless they had a mole in the command center.
In all likelihood, I think the word from the resuce teams in the mine must have come back to the command center that they found the 12 miners and somehow someone thought they heard that 12 survivors were found. It appears that the mine personnel who misinterpreted the reports from the rescue teams then phoned their family and friends in the church and word quickly got out of control.
While I can sympatize with the “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” position the company was in at that point (i.e., “Who do I tell not to celebrate?”) I think they should have erred on the side of providing truthful accounts of events (and rebuking unproven rumors) even if it would have caused more anguish to the families.
They got the story wrong. Badly.
That means either an official source gave them bad information or they reported a poorly sourced story. If it’s the former, the media should report that. If it’s the latter, then somebody didn’t do their job right.
When it was a ‘miracle’ it was God answering our prayers. Now that it is a human tragedy and outrage, is God ignoring our prayers? Inquiring minds wish to know, while the faith-based ones are just chalking it up to God working in those mysterious ways.
http://www.thetalentshow.org/
buma: Your point would have been far more interesting, if it had been made by you.
Nevertheless, I have no trouble discerning God’s will in this, and further, I would venture to say that the friends and families of the dead miners will be far easier to console having the knowledge of God’s will than they would wandering in spiritual darkness cursing Him.
See the Book of Job in this regard.
Any translation will do, but the New American Bible is my preference:
http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/job/intro.htm
Frank, it’s just another one of your indulgences in plausible denial. If the miners are saved, it’s a miracle of God; if they are almost all dead it’s God’s will. Sure, some people find comfort in religion. They always have, regardless of the peculiarities of their particular religion. I am not wired to believe in that kind of nonsense. And that’s just God’s will, right? Your comment would have been more interesting if it had not been made by you. After all, you also believe Bush’s word.
buma, for once in your life, could you stop being an idiot?
You have no idea what you are talking about. Believing that all things work according to God’s will has nothing whatever to do with denial, plausible or otherwise. You don’t want to have a serious conversation about this, so I won’t pursue the topic any further.
Not only is how I feel about George W. Bush completely unknown to you, it is also totally irrelevant to this topic.
You just felt the urge to “pay me back” for the beginning of my response to you. Silly boy.
SadieB: Thought this article (OT) might interest you:
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article.asp?aid=12101074_1
The irony of Frank’s response to me speaks for itself.
buma: The total incomprehensibility of your previous comment speaks to noone about anything.