BCT news article – 1/5/06

This page was last updated on January 27, 2006.

At press time, we went with the best news available; Reader’s Advocate; Beaver County Times; January 5, 2006.

I believe a better title for the article would have been “The Times lied; miners died.” In fairness, this incident is only the latest example of the news media demonstrating that it cannot be trusted to get the story right. Remember Hurricane Katrina, Rathergate, Jayson Blair, et cetera?

Below is a detailed critique of the subject article.

“Newspapers across the East Coast incorrectly reported Wednesday that a miracle occurred in a small mining village near Tallmansville, W.Va.”

[RWC] Here are some headlines from local newspapers as they were delivered to my mother’s house.

Beaver County Times: “12 alive – only 1 trapped miner doesn’t survive ordeal”

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “Miracle at Sago: 12 miners alive”

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: “Only one alive”

The Times and Post-Gazette both ran the same AP-supplied picture under their headlines.

According to the P-G, it was able to interrupt printing in time to correct about a third of the production run. I don’t know if the Trib’s entire run had the correct headline.

“Shortly before midnight, when most papers were nearing production deadlines, The Associated Press reported family members saying they were told that 12 of the miners, who were trapped underground for more than 41 hours after an explosion on Monday, were alive.

“It was euphoric, but unconfirmed news. About four hours earlier, families received word that the body of one miner had been found apart from the group, making hopes of a rescue effort bleak.

“The normal press deadline at The Times is 12:20 a.m.

“Editors had already decided to delay the press start, waiting on the outcome of the Orange Bowl between Penn State and Florida State - a three-overtime, marathon football game that didn’t conclude until 1 a.m.

“The dramatic information unfolding almost simultaneously from West Virginia was further reason to hold the press run.

“But morning newspapers have a finite publication window - a limited time frame when the press must roll to meet delivery schedules.

“Around 3 a.m., when officials confirmed the deaths, The Times’ press run was almost complete.

“Early reports from The Associated Press on the miners’ conditions were unsubstantiated. Information was attributed only to West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin.

“‘At the time, the story was corroborated by every news source at our disposal. But eventually, the story we published proved to be wrong, and that compounds the tragedy,’ said Executive Editor Keith Briscoe.

“The Times, along with the rest of the nation, hoped that the 12 men would be found alive, Briscoe said.

“To reach me, write to Readers’ Advocate, The Times, 400 Fair Ave., Beaver, PA 15009; call (724) 775-3200, Ext. 170; or e-mail timesadvocate@timesonline.com.”

[RWC] In case you didn’t notice, nowhere in this piece do you read an apology for getting the story wrong. In a subsequent editorial, the Times actually blames cable news outlets.

Is it fair to claim the Times lied in its coverage of the mine disaster? Probably not. After all, to the best of my knowledge, the Times believed what it printed to be true. That said, the Times did know the story was wrong before it delivered the papers to subscribers.

Remember that the Times claimed President Bush lied about Iraq at least once. I’m sure the similarity of the situations is unnoticed by the Times.