Apparently, the Coal Group knew for three hours the reports were false.
No one apparently knows who spread the erroneous information. Unidentified people showed up at a church, supposedly telling those gathered there that rescued miners were on their way. All of this, as well as the hunger for a happy ending, fanned hours of journalistic fiction.
...Hatfield said rescue teams reported finding 12 miners alive Tuesday night at 11:45 p.m. EST. Moments later the news spread via "stray cell phone conversations," Hatfield said...."I was sitting with families and speaking with family members. There's two rooms in the church and when one room broke out in euphoria and everyone saying `What happened, what happened?' - that's when someone said, `They found them, they're alive,'" Manchin recalled. "I looked at our communications people and I looked at my security and said, `Have we had that confirmed, do we know anything about that?' And they said, `No.'"
When the company found out at 12:30 am that the miners were dead, it failed to act immediately.
Within the half-hour, Hatfield knew he had a problem. The initial report from the rescue team that the miners were alive was followed, at 12:30 a.m., by news that only one miner, McCloy, had survived....A little more than an hour later, at 1:38 a.m., the deaths of 11 miners were confirmed. Still, there was no public statement from the company....
By 2:30 a.m., Hatfield said the company had completed a statement that would soon be delivered to unsuspecting family members at the church....The miracle in West Virginia officially ended shortly after Hatfield entered the church, shortly after 2:30 a.m. Shortly after 3 a.m., the company confirmed what it had known for almost three hours.
But what of the media who reported the news without fact-checking it? Arianna weighs in here.
And the problem here wasn't those amateur bloggers, operating "without editors" and "with no fact-checking." It was as mainstream as the mainstream media gets.
CNN producer Tom Farner told TV Newser:
"Too many celebrity anchors assembled in West Virginia last night -- not enough reporters. When twelve-alive fever swept the live shot positions, who asked the basic reporter's question: 'How do you know?' Who demanded a second source? Who held back pending more official confirmation? By uncritically and breathlessly relaying shouted bulletins from sprinting family members, the cable celebs transubstantiated rumor into fact. Reporting means asking questions and making cautious judgments, not just repeating things you hear.
[Via Harry Shearer at Huffpo]
The media defends itself here.
