One of the papers I get had them alive, and one had them dead - but even that one had them alive at the end of the story, which did not get edited too well. (The editors at this paper are barely literate, so no surprise there.)
What we should be pitting here is kindergarten religion, the kind that has the old Father God taking care of us, tucking us in at night, answering our prayers and saving the miners. If you believe in that kind of god, you get disappointed. But that’s the kind of god that lots of people seem to want. Mostly the media talks to the families of survivors in things like this - this kind of shows what the families of those who don’t survive feel when the others are praising god.
My wife had major eye surgery last week. I am happy to say I didn’t feel the slightest inclination to pray, and when it succeeded I didn’t have the desire to thank god, but rather thanked the doctor, and was thankful for the good hospital, my wife’s intelligence in getting to the doctor in time to catch the problem, and my good fortune in having a job with really good health insurance.
Strange as it is to say, I agree with DtC. I chalk it up to people like Geraldo Rivera who seem dead set on creating soundbites for history in the style of the Hindenburgh “Oh the Humanity!” His coverage last night was just embarrassing.
The way I understood it was what Lissa posted. He knew they weren’t all alive, but couldn’t say more than that. If that’s the case, I don’t blame him for holding off until he could say who or how many hadn’t made it.
I think that’s a good post, KidCharlemagne. These days, it seems a lot of people think a good newscaster/commentator is somebody who overemotes at all times.
Yeah, I can’t fault the newspapers too much for this. It was a confluence of looming deadlines and bad information. They were ringing the freakin’ church bells in town! You can’t get on the phone to the editor and say “Well, we’re not sure what happened because we haven’t seen the people alive or the bodies.” and not expect your editor to say “What’s with those church bells I’m hearing in the background there?”
I honestly don’t see a lot of blame here. They genuinely screwed up (likely in patr out of hope for the best) and in a tough situation made a tough call. I’ve also seen more of the quotes from the company where they said that after the second call came in, they didn’t really know whether it was any more reliable than the first. In retrospect, mayeb they should have released all the info ASAP, but the rationale: that with incomplete information and having screwed up the first time they thought they owed it to people to get the story straight this time before throwing info out there that was incomplete. The family members that are calling them hypocrites and deliberately screwing around with them are out of line. They made a terrible mistake on the first call, they’re sorry, and I don’t see any reason to think that it was anything other than horrible for them as well.
As for a miracle, the election of George W Bush in 2000 sure was a miracle for the coal industry. After spending a record 3.8 million on getting him elected, the coal lobby’s director told an industry group: "You did everything you could to elect a Republican president. [Now] you are already seeing in his actions the payback.” And yep: civil service workers in charge of industry oversight and regulations were quickly replaced with… guess what: former industry executives and lobbyists. Let me ask you this: no matter what side of the poltiical spectrum you’re on, do you think these new appointees were MORE or LESS interested in making sure their industry was doing all it could and was required to as far as safety goes. Do you think they were MORE or LESS willing to hear out the complaints and warnings of whistleblowers or employees and investigate their own industry?
I mean, it’s almost unbelievable. No doubt the chorus of “you blame Bush for everything!” will start up again. Well, I don’t blame Bush for this accident in the sense that he caused it or even in his widlest imagination wished it. But for like the 80th time now: putting incompetant cronies or foxes in the henhouse, don’t have any negative affect on people lives. Like it or not, that’s a legitimate part of this story.
Will someone please tell me which rightwing halfwit radio pundit came up with the bumper sticker phrase that one of my cow-orkers kept saying over and over again with an evil smirk on his fat face-“Media Lied, Miners Died”? :mad:
It was a Schroedinger’s Miracle, in which the miners were in state of quantum indeteminancy, simultaneously miraculously saved and tragically doomed until the mine was actually unsealed.
If I can note this, relevent to the original OP (er, ok that’s redundent but I mean to the original thought before the news developed), just because it irritated me so much. From another message board:
Maybe it’s the way he makes it all about the “persecution” of Christians.
And in case you’re wondering, this after the truth came out:
One of the few things I can remember from a Corporate Communications class that dealt with how to handle major incidents was that expert opinion holds that you should tell the media only four things:
[ul]
[li]What you definitely absolutely know HAS happened[/li][li]What you definitely absolutely know has NOT happened[/li][li]That you don’t know anything else for certain but you’ll let them know as soon as you do[/li][li]when you’ll give them the next update (ideally, in about 15 minutes time)[/li][/ul]
They’re simple rules but they certainly help avoid shit like this.
In the other thread about this, Siege has posted a transcript of the crucial transmission from the rescuers. I can see why the mine officials passed on the “they’re alive” news.
And here we see the awesome power of correct grammar - change the comma to a semi-colon or a hyphen, and the meaning of the bumper sticker is changed to something closer to accurate. “Media lied; Miners Died” I should tuck this little gem away for the next time we have a go 'round on whether grammar is important or not.
ANYway, this sounds so simple it shouldn’t have been able to be screwed up - you get to the bodies of the miners, you check for heartbeats, you don’t have any, you have (unfortunately) dead miners. This makes me wonder who jumped the gun, and why. I don’t think I actually can blame the media on this one, if the sources they could reasonably expect to be reliable fell down on the job.
I agree with you completely about media pandering, Dtc. I’ve seen a few hints of it in Canadian media lately, and they can just cut that shit right out.