California Conservative

It was a strange uneasiness that rested in our stomachs last night as we watched FOXNews’ Geraldo Rivera go ape-nuts, literally, over the alleged recovery of “all 12 miners found alive.” It was around 9pm PST.

It’s not that we’re pessimists. And we wanted to believe in the “New Year’s miracle,” just as everyone else. But doubt crossed our minds when Rivera, who was reporting by telephone, said something to the effect of, “we were driving to the mine, and a boy running down the road cried, ‘They’re all alive…’” We thought it strange to be celebrating before seeing any of the miners emerge.

Then we figured, would any news outlet be so eager to capture a story before confirming the facts? Of course, we were listening to “Geraldo,” so that always gives us pause. We’re among the unlikely viewers who still remember Capone’s Vault.

Going online, we found that CNN had posted the breaking headline on Yahoo!, so that was somewhat reassuring. But a quick check of Michelle Malkin and Instapundit revealed no such headlines. For whatever reason, they weren’t jumping on the bandwagon. Call it prescient or prudent, they avoided the trappings of reporting on rumor. And when people’s lives are at stake, that should be standard practice.

This morning, AP reports:

In a stunning and heartbreaking reversal, family members were told early Wednesday that 12 of 13 trapped coal miners were dead — three hours after they began celebrating news that they were alive.

The sole survivor was in critical condition but showing signs of brain functioning, a doctor said.

The devastating new information about the others shocked and angered family members, who had rejoiced with Gov. Joe Manchin hours earlier when a rumor began to spread that 12 miners were alive. Rescue crews found the first victim earlier Tuesday evening.

“I can only say there was no one who did anything intentionally other than risk their lives to save their loved ones,” Manchin told ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

“No one can say anything about that would make anything any better,” he said. “Just a horrible situation.”

Our sincerest sympathies and heart-felt condolences to all the families who are suffering the loss of their loves ones. It is, indeed, a horrible story.

While we may forgive Geraldo for his over-the-top, carnival-like newscasting from the field (that’s his schtick, and even the FOX anchor last night had a hard time keeping a straight face listening to him), we hope all the major news organizations have learned an important lesson: never again report that victims of some tragedy are found alive before confirming it conclusively.

Getting “the scoop” should not outweigh the consequences of being wrong.

UPDATE:
Michelle Malkin explores What Went Wrong?

RELATED:
CNN has video

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 4th, 2006 at 6:44 am and is filed under Humanitarian, Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.