False reports on miners were a 'second tragedy'
False reports on miners were 'second tragedy'
Jan 5, 2006
NEW YORK -- It was, sadly, the miracle that wasn't.
For nearly three hours early Wednesday, cable news channels, broadcast networks and East Coast newspapers reported that 12 men survived being trapped in a West Virginia coal mine. CNN and ABC's "Nightline," among others, reported bells ringing at the Sago Baptist Church near the mine, spoke to joyful family members and quoted government officials who gave some details of the rescue 30 hours after a blast trapped the miners deep underground.
It all seemed to fit. And for more than two hours, TV news told an upbeat story that recalled the 2002 rescue of nine men from the Quecreek Mine in Somerset, Pa., in similar circumstances.
"We heard church bells ringing. We heard people yelling, screaming, clapping," said Anderson Cooper, CNN's anchor on the scene who spent hours live on the air late Tuesday and early Wednesday. "A friend of one of the miners came over, crying, to tell us that he had heard and just been told in the church that 12 of them (miners) had been found alive."
But a chain of miscommunication had shot through the small town of Tallmansville, W.Va., falsely raising the dwindling hopes of family members. As the coal company stayed disturbingly quiet, TV news was full of interviews with celebrations by family members in and around the church.
While some networks made it clear that the miners' survival was unconfirmed, the tone of others portrayed the story as a miracle. But the weight of the purported evidence seemed to escalate along with the jubilation expressed by the family members huddled outside the church, with some reporters saying that they'd heard comments from the crowd that the miners had been seen near the shaft opening. At 11:51 p.m. ET, CNN became the first to report that the miners were believed to be alive. Fox News Channel and MSNBC followed within two minutes.
ABC's "Nightline" was more than two hours late, following a triple-overtime Orange Bowl and a half-hour for local news. A live half-hour show, anchored by Terry Moran and Martin Bashir, went out to the East Coast and ended about 15 minutes before the West Coast feed at 11:35 p.m. PT. That show reported extensively on the miners' survival.
"We didn't take the family's word for it," "Nightline" executive producer James Goldston said. "We had confirmation from two separate, very well-sourced people involved in the rescue, from a very high level. They both told us repeatedly the same information. We had five or six separate sources. By our reckoning, it was enough to go with, and we went with it."
Bashir stood by in case there were new developments after the show was over, though a taped version started on the West Coast until it was interrupted a few minutes before midnight PT with Bashir's reporting that only one miner had survived.
By that time, all the networks were reporting what really happened. Before daylight broke, the journalism industry, particularly CNN, was taking it on the chin for less than full reporting. Critics -- including a number in the mainstream press -- said they didn't understand where basic rules of sourcing came into play.
"It's an excuse saying, 'We got it wrong, but so did everyone else.' That's not exactly journalism's finest hour -- or, in this case, three hours," said Tobe Berkovitz, a mass communications professor at Boston University.
"Sources you think are reliable can be wrong," Berkovitz said. "In the old days, you had to double source and triple source, and that has gone so by the boards."
But other journalists said they did everything they could.
"Yes, everybody had the story wrong, but there was a lot of sourcing," said CNN president Jon Klein, who also was up late monitoring the story. He pointed out that West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin and a congresswoman were among the sources, as well as what reporters on the ground were seeing.
"You go with the governor, the congresswoman and the cheers from the rescuers," Klein said.
While on the air at 2:46 a.m. ET, Cooper was told what he described as "stunning news" by a neighbor, Lynette Roby, that only one of the miners had survived. The other networks followed.
In an interview Wednesday night, Bill Hemmer, a Fox News Channel anchor, called the communication breakdown "the second tragedy of this coal mining disaster."
Hemmer, who was on the scene, said, "It was a collision of the worst kind of misinformation." He said his heart was broken by the anguish on the family members' faces after they learned that their loved ones were gone.
"We were reporting very real events based on all the expertise and knowledge and all the things that we were seeing in the middle of the night in a small West Virginia town," MSNBC vp daytime programming Mark Effron said.
"You weigh against the ongoing nature of the story and this kind of story," he said. "If we sat there and waited for the official press release from the governor, we would not have been serving our viewers."
Cooper said Wednesday that he didn't understand why the mine company had allowed the misinformation to go on for so long.
"We have to rely on the facts as we gather them, all the sources we have access to," Cooper said. "We were tightly controlled physically. ... No officials came to talk to us. There's only so much one can do. You get multiple sources, and when all of those people are saying the same thing, there's only so much you can do unless you see it with your own eyes."
His boss, Klein, agreed.
"I've never been prouder of our team. They were fast to the story and first with the story as it evolved and were quick to ask the tough questions of everyone, like, 'Where did you hear that from?' ... They did everything they were supposed to do."
A few outlets treaded carefully with news. Fox News Channel, while being within a minute of the CNN report, never stated the miners' survival as fact, attributing it to the families. NBC, in a crawl on the broadcast network, did the same in the early-morning hours. And CBS News, which had access to the same information, didn't break into primetime or late-night programming to announce the miners' reputed survival. They did, hours later on "Up to the Minute," reported that all but one had been found dead.
For nearly three hours early Wednesday, cable news channels, broadcast networks and East Coast newspapers reported that 12 men survived being trapped in a West Virginia coal mine. CNN and ABC's "Nightline," among others, reported bells ringing at the Sago Baptist Church near the mine, spoke to joyful family members and quoted government officials who gave some details of the rescue 30 hours after a blast trapped the miners deep underground.
It all seemed to fit. And for more than two hours, TV news told an upbeat story that recalled the 2002 rescue of nine men from the Quecreek Mine in Somerset, Pa., in similar circumstances.
"We heard church bells ringing. We heard people yelling, screaming, clapping," said Anderson Cooper, CNN's anchor on the scene who spent hours live on the air late Tuesday and early Wednesday. "A friend of one of the miners came over, crying, to tell us that he had heard and just been told in the church that 12 of them (miners) had been found alive."
But a chain of miscommunication had shot through the small town of Tallmansville, W.Va., falsely raising the dwindling hopes of family members. As the coal company stayed disturbingly quiet, TV news was full of interviews with celebrations by family members in and around the church.
While some networks made it clear that the miners' survival was unconfirmed, the tone of others portrayed the story as a miracle. But the weight of the purported evidence seemed to escalate along with the jubilation expressed by the family members huddled outside the church, with some reporters saying that they'd heard comments from the crowd that the miners had been seen near the shaft opening. At 11:51 p.m. ET, CNN became the first to report that the miners were believed to be alive. Fox News Channel and MSNBC followed within two minutes.
ABC's "Nightline" was more than two hours late, following a triple-overtime Orange Bowl and a half-hour for local news. A live half-hour show, anchored by Terry Moran and Martin Bashir, went out to the East Coast and ended about 15 minutes before the West Coast feed at 11:35 p.m. PT. That show reported extensively on the miners' survival.
"We didn't take the family's word for it," "Nightline" executive producer James Goldston said. "We had confirmation from two separate, very well-sourced people involved in the rescue, from a very high level. They both told us repeatedly the same information. We had five or six separate sources. By our reckoning, it was enough to go with, and we went with it."
Bashir stood by in case there were new developments after the show was over, though a taped version started on the West Coast until it was interrupted a few minutes before midnight PT with Bashir's reporting that only one miner had survived.
By that time, all the networks were reporting what really happened. Before daylight broke, the journalism industry, particularly CNN, was taking it on the chin for less than full reporting. Critics -- including a number in the mainstream press -- said they didn't understand where basic rules of sourcing came into play.
"It's an excuse saying, 'We got it wrong, but so did everyone else.' That's not exactly journalism's finest hour -- or, in this case, three hours," said Tobe Berkovitz, a mass communications professor at Boston University.
"Sources you think are reliable can be wrong," Berkovitz said. "In the old days, you had to double source and triple source, and that has gone so by the boards."
But other journalists said they did everything they could.
"Yes, everybody had the story wrong, but there was a lot of sourcing," said CNN president Jon Klein, who also was up late monitoring the story. He pointed out that West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin and a congresswoman were among the sources, as well as what reporters on the ground were seeing.
"You go with the governor, the congresswoman and the cheers from the rescuers," Klein said.
While on the air at 2:46 a.m. ET, Cooper was told what he described as "stunning news" by a neighbor, Lynette Roby, that only one of the miners had survived. The other networks followed.
In an interview Wednesday night, Bill Hemmer, a Fox News Channel anchor, called the communication breakdown "the second tragedy of this coal mining disaster."
Hemmer, who was on the scene, said, "It was a collision of the worst kind of misinformation." He said his heart was broken by the anguish on the family members' faces after they learned that their loved ones were gone.
"We were reporting very real events based on all the expertise and knowledge and all the things that we were seeing in the middle of the night in a small West Virginia town," MSNBC vp daytime programming Mark Effron said.
"You weigh against the ongoing nature of the story and this kind of story," he said. "If we sat there and waited for the official press release from the governor, we would not have been serving our viewers."
Cooper said Wednesday that he didn't understand why the mine company had allowed the misinformation to go on for so long.
"We have to rely on the facts as we gather them, all the sources we have access to," Cooper said. "We were tightly controlled physically. ... No officials came to talk to us. There's only so much one can do. You get multiple sources, and when all of those people are saying the same thing, there's only so much you can do unless you see it with your own eyes."
His boss, Klein, agreed.
"I've never been prouder of our team. They were fast to the story and first with the story as it evolved and were quick to ask the tough questions of everyone, like, 'Where did you hear that from?' ... They did everything they were supposed to do."
A few outlets treaded carefully with news. Fox News Channel, while being within a minute of the CNN report, never stated the miners' survival as fact, attributing it to the families. NBC, in a crawl on the broadcast network, did the same in the early-morning hours. And CBS News, which had access to the same information, didn't break into primetime or late-night programming to announce the miners' reputed survival. They did, hours later on "Up to the Minute," reported that all but one had been found dead.
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