...'weren't the officials watching the coverage on television'??? Why would they be? I would think that they would have been concentrating on the job at hand (either getting the men out or helping the families). It would have been good had the media concentrated on their job as well.

Brian, I think you are really terrific. However, I find it really amusing that it is now the reponsibility of the people in the midst of an event making the news, to watch the news to make sure the media gets it right. Shame on you and all of the other media members. I actually saw a piece on CNN on how difficult this story has been for the media to cover because of the waiting with no action or "news". I was totally turned off once again by the media's handling of this event. My heart goes out to those poor families.

It just goes to show you how quickly rumors start and end. I hold everyone involved in the lack of communication and the media for not asking if this information was confirmed before reporting it. The media is so quick to report with out checking first. Just another example, as someone wrote earlier about all the rabid rumors of what happened in New Orleans after the hurricane. None of it true either.Even the mayor and former police chief, jumped on that band wagon and went so far as having Oprah do a show. What a disgrace.

I was watching MSNBC at 1:00 am when this broke. I woke my wife to tell her of the great news. In the am we found out it was reversed. Everywhere, and on all networks since then (I haven't watched or listened all day)it has been about who has been at fault in reporting this.
The major and only issue is that 12 men have died.

C'mon folks, quite bashing the media. The media did it's job. It is not the media the created the information, only relaying what officials told them.

If you want to blame anyone for this miscommunication, blame the American public that has an incredible appetite for having news NOW!

Blaming the media is for losers who don't want to admit fault: Sammy Sosa, for getting caught with a corked bat; George Bush, for getting caught wiretapping Americans without a warrant

In all the tragedy that has surrounded these families and this community, I see no reason to point the finger of blame for the hopes that rose for those 3 joyful hours. Most assuredly, we all wanted to hear that the miners were alive... we believed it so much that it came true. I'm reminded of the poem by Emily Dickinson:

Hope is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –

And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –
And sore must be the storm –
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm –

I've heard it in the chillest land –
And on the strangest Sea –
Yet, never, in Extremity,
It asked a crumb – of Me.

My prayer is that although our hearts have been broken, our hope in humanity and in God will not fail us at this devastating time.

You guys could give two craps about those miners, you just wanted a story. Do not pretend that there will be an investigation on your part, because there wont be. You will just say you are sorry and go onto the next story, as if it never happened. You all will never learn your lesson. God Bless those family members, and I pray to GOD, that they will be strong for their children. God opened his doors for them, and my grandfather(who recently was killed), sang them in with his beautiful voice. GOD BLESS you, miners and your family. I know you are watching over them.

I believe that the mining company (ICG) had the best interests of all concerned at heart during the rescue effort and were working under extradorinarily difficult circumstances. I too feel terrible about the communication mistake but do not hold the company (or anyone) accountable. Further, the lack of 100% perfect communication was secondary to the rescue effort. Finally, this is not about the media but rather about the human condition. Something which (I believe) those in the media find difficult to embrace.

Good article, Brian. It seems like the more media outlets we have, and the faster the news gets delivered, the more grains of salt we need to take with it. Some of these cable news shows provide more problems than help these days. My deepest sympathy to all the families who were so vastly affected by this yesterday. God bless them.

As I see it there are 2 different problems here. 1 WHO BROKE THE NEWS that the miners were alive and 2 WHY DID THE MEDIA report that they were alive with out validating the story and then putting it to print. I can't answer the first question. But as to the second one. It's MEDIA HYPE (Who is first with a breaking story). And the sad truth is 12 families have had their hearts wrenched in more ways than anyone can even imagine. My heart goes out to them in this real time and need. Hopefully the Media with do some serious soul searching and come up with a solution to this MEDIA HYPE. I expect accuracy not half truths. And we as a nation deserve and demand it.

With real-time news must come real-time responsibility to report the news truthfully.
The fast pace of the media today unfortunately means that mis-information is spread much more readily.
Remember Katrina? And how did the tv reporters feel a day or 2 later when they started seeing first hand the rest of the gulf coast, and Waveland, Mississippi in particular. I bet they felt like dopes. New Orleans got flooded, but the coast "out there" simply wasn't there any more. And then what happened? The networks went with , and ran into the ground, the angle on the story that was the "sexiest". Poor monority inner-city recipients that the media felt were too poor to evacuate by themselves. Despite reports of over 100,000 automobiles sitting flooded in parking lots all around the city, outside houses and apartments.
Blame this mess on the MEDIA, where the blame squarely belongs.

I don't exactly blame the media, but let's get real. A "miscommunication" is whether there is beef or bean soup for lunch. Not that 12 people are alive or dead. I grieve for the poor families.

Blame, blame, blame. The media didn't kill anyone. In fact it didn't appear that any of the families of the victims heard their loved ones were alive from the media - it was cell phones. I cannot imagine the rollercoaster of emotions but nothing the media or any official did changed the tragic ending. The focus here is awfully skewed - the media is making themselves the story.

When I went to bed our local NBC affiliate was showing all the commotion in WV but kept reminding the audience that they were waiting for a press conference. Never did they come out and say there were 12 survivors. They mentioned "reports" of survivors. If no one had reported anything the same bunch of blamers would be screaming about their "right to know".

Where is the credibility in the media anymore? In this day where news companies are competing for viewers and trying desperately to trump each others stories it seems as if the news is more about entertainment rather than truth. All news outlets never had official word on the safety on the miners and they continued to print and air the hearsay. Recent examples also include the reporting on Katrina, the Tsunami, and especially 9/11 where competing news outlets time after time reported on hearsay rather than fact. Case in point, Hurricane Katrina where news outlets repeatedly reported on the numbers of missing and dead, and also on the numbers of dead and raped in the Superdome. However, as the truth came out the numbers of actual dead, actual missing, actual dead/missing/raped in the Superdome were way off. Reporting news when there is no accountability leads down a destructive path of a misinformed public, which sadly, we have today on a variety of issues.

I suspected something was amiss last night when a reporter from a cable news channel asked a relative of one of the miners where he learned the good news -- and his response was "From you guys". How many people are hurt every day in the rumour mill that has developed due to "breaking news" journalism.

Whatever happened to FACT checking? I listened, and not one cable outlet tried to confirm anything. Instead the headlines read "12 Miners Alive" - where did that come from? Just Rumors. How sad. Didn't it seem odd that the Press was kept far back from the scene. We all feel for the families. My family was from W VA so I understand the life.

Why was this mine still open after all the violations? Why does there have to be a tragedy like this before the government takes these things seriously? My heart pours out to these families.
If you are going to point fingers point it at the people who kept this mine open!

I WANT TO LET EVERYONE KNOW THAT I FEEL VERY SAD ABOUT WHAT HAPPEND TO ALL THE MINERS, BUT I DONT THINK THAT ANYONE INTENTIONAL MADE THAT CALL , I DONT THINK ANYONE SHOULD BE BLAMMED FOR WHAT HAPPENED, TO ALL THE FAMILIES MY HEART GOES OUT TO YOU , YOU ARE IN MY PRAYERS...

This mine tragedy has brought into sharp focus for me just how truly awful today's cable "journalists" are... every one of last night's cable anchors (Anderson Cooper/CNN, the awful Rita Cosby/MSNBC, or Bill Hemmer/Fox) should either go back to journalism school and learn how to check facts before going on air, or else be fired. They were all an embarassment to television news. All three of them should call Dan Rather to see how it feels to be careless with the facts, and announce their sincere apologies on air tonight

As a former journalist (emphasis on the word "former"), too often I see in today's media a tendency for outlets to play a "follow the leader" game ... as in, if one media outlet reports something, surely it must be true, therefore they "run with it." What a recipe for disaster! What makes this "game" more unbearable in this case is the deep human emotion that was invested in the West Virginia mine story.

We can't blame the media itself for the miscommunication that triggered this entire tragic episode. The miscommunication by itself probably started in a very simple, human way; it happens countless number of times every day in normal conversations. The impact of that initial miscommunication in this instance is simply multiplied immeasurably by the situation, and by the lives and emotions that were at stake.

Should we point fingers? No. That won't solve anything. It won't bring back a single one of the miners who perished.

Can the media learn a lesson from this? Yes. Get OFFICIAL verification. Not verification from other media outlets, but OFFICIAL verification. Get verification on that verification. Nail it all down so it's airtight.

Deep emotions are at stake here.

Maybe the news media will be alittle bit more careful of reporting Breaking News until they the facts straight! I did not mind the "Breaking News" breaking into Jay Leno Show to say the 12 miners were alive and will go up to the church where their loved ones waited. I then went to bed, praising GOD for delivering us a miracle in West Virginia. I did mind watching the news the next morning to say the "surviving" miner (singular) was in critical condition. I then went to work with a very heavy heart. Please, Please, get the news right before showing it to the millions of anxious viewers.

Brian, you've said it well. In it's haste to be first, many media outlets do not confirm stories and facts within stories with the same urgency they gather the stories in an effort to be first, and a single event, even one as sad as this, isn't the problem. The problem is that the cumulative effect brings doubt and allows government to defend often incredibly dangerous behaviour by simply saying the press got it wrong, and the greater the stories like this become, the more believable those utterances are. There's the real danger for all of us. Your honesty and forthrightness is refreshing.

This is a tragic story for the families of the miners and the people of WV and my heart goes out to them. It is horrific that both the media and business leaders shirked their responsiblity to maintain ethics and integrity in communicating to the detriment of these families and reprehensible of all involved to wait three hours.

Brian:

When I first joined the military, one of my leaders said to our group, "A person's character is defined not by the mistakes he or she makes; rather, it is the actions that person takes after the mistake is made." Twelve years later, after changing careers into the medical field, I strive to live by that saying. After this tragedy (and the surrounding fracas), it appears to me that while some people are concerned about their character, other more important (or influential) people are not.

With this event and all events we are all only human. We should not be focusing on when the media broke a story, but how the families are doing and what can be done in the future to so incidents like this do not happen to good people. I am sure there are people out there who are looking to place blame, and the media is not the people to blame. Maybe it is the owners, maybe it is the inspectors for not shutting down a dangerous mine, or maybe this incident was meant to be to save others from such tragic events. May all our thoughts be with the families now.