Media Report Mine Rescue -- Then Carry the Truth: Updated
Updated -- COMMENTARY
I knew better than to write anything like reporting on the Sago Mine disaster while it was still unfolding. I'll leave that stuff to the news crews with resources to spare. This, after all, is simply one schmuck's little blog in the big, big mediasphere. Besides, what more could I really add to folks on the ground providing the primary sources of news? That said, I am secure in the fact that I have nothing to be ashamed of -- or have to try to defend -- because I didn't get it wrong.
Regular readers know I have recently located to D.C. and have been holed up in a hotel room for the past month and a half. I say this because, while I normally do not subscribe to print newspapers, the hotel delivers USA Today and the Washington Post every morning. Being an early riser, I had already become aware of the updated Sago Mine tragedy via cable and Internet. Therefore, it was truly a 'de-ja-Dewey-Wins' press moment when I opened the door to my room and saw the headlines on the floor trumpeting that the miners were found alive.
After seeing those headlines, I laid out some things to say about how the news corps had flubbed the story -- and I asked just who is going to start holding the press accountable for what has been passed off as journalism lately. However, I paused to reflect after re-watching clips of the story unfold. It was then when I saw again and again reporters like Fox's Geraldo Rivera immediately try to verify the news on-air the instant someone in the crowd told him the miners were alive. I also realized then that I did not really want to hold the media accountable for misreporting the story. That would be too easy. I only wanted to hold accountable the one who passed along the bad information to begin with. Everyone else just became caught up in the tide of emotion that ensued. At least we had the real story when coal company corrected the reports. The notion that the coal folks didn't verify without having the facts, given the fallout of that decision, says a lot about their sensitivity.
If you want to hold the press accountable for violating basic journalism tenets such as, "report what you know and how you know it," you also need to hold, for example, James Risen and the Times accountable for building the NSA wiretap story solely around anonymous and unnamed sources. What's the difference? The reader still does not know who said what. For a story to be verified, someone has to be accountable for it. Anything less is just sloppy journalism.
NEWSBYTE
Media Report Miracle Mine Rescue -- Then Carry the Tragic Truth
NEW YORK (E&P) -- In one of the most disturbing media performances of its kind in recent years, TV news and many newspapers carried the tragically wrong news late Tuesday and early Wednesday that 12 of 13 trapped coal miners in West Virginia had been found alive and safe. Hours later they had to reverse course. Read full story.
TENSION: Deweyfied
GRAVITY: Tragic
Tags: journalism, mainstream media, press, newspapers
Global Tags: Washington DC, News and politics, News, Politics, Current Events, Current Affairs, Life
I knew better than to write anything like reporting on the Sago Mine disaster while it was still unfolding. I'll leave that stuff to the news crews with resources to spare. This, after all, is simply one schmuck's little blog in the big, big mediasphere. Besides, what more could I really add to folks on the ground providing the primary sources of news? That said, I am secure in the fact that I have nothing to be ashamed of -- or have to try to defend -- because I didn't get it wrong.
Regular readers know I have recently located to D.C. and have been holed up in a hotel room for the past month and a half. I say this because, while I normally do not subscribe to print newspapers, the hotel delivers USA Today and the Washington Post every morning. Being an early riser, I had already become aware of the updated Sago Mine tragedy via cable and Internet. Therefore, it was truly a 'de-ja-Dewey-Wins' press moment when I opened the door to my room and saw the headlines on the floor trumpeting that the miners were found alive.
After seeing those headlines, I laid out some things to say about how the news corps had flubbed the story -- and I asked just who is going to start holding the press accountable for what has been passed off as journalism lately. However, I paused to reflect after re-watching clips of the story unfold. It was then when I saw again and again reporters like Fox's Geraldo Rivera immediately try to verify the news on-air the instant someone in the crowd told him the miners were alive. I also realized then that I did not really want to hold the media accountable for misreporting the story. That would be too easy. I only wanted to hold accountable the one who passed along the bad information to begin with. Everyone else just became caught up in the tide of emotion that ensued. At least we had the real story when coal company corrected the reports. The notion that the coal folks didn't verify without having the facts, given the fallout of that decision, says a lot about their sensitivity.
If you want to hold the press accountable for violating basic journalism tenets such as, "report what you know and how you know it," you also need to hold, for example, James Risen and the Times accountable for building the NSA wiretap story solely around anonymous and unnamed sources. What's the difference? The reader still does not know who said what. For a story to be verified, someone has to be accountable for it. Anything less is just sloppy journalism.
NEWSBYTE
Media Report Miracle Mine Rescue -- Then Carry the Tragic Truth
NEW YORK (E&P) -- In one of the most disturbing media performances of its kind in recent years, TV news and many newspapers carried the tragically wrong news late Tuesday and early Wednesday that 12 of 13 trapped coal miners in West Virginia had been found alive and safe. Hours later they had to reverse course. Read full story.
TENSION: Deweyfied
GRAVITY: Tragic
Tags: journalism, mainstream media, press, newspapers
Global Tags: Washington DC, News and politics, News, Politics, Current Events, Current Affairs, Life
posted by Steven Moyer at 8:55 PM
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