The Miners are ALIVE!! Oh no, wait, they\'re dead. Sorry, we goofed.

[davepeck]

For three hours overnight, families of a dozen trapped West Virginia miners thought their loved ones were coming home as church bells rang to welcome them.

But by 3 a.m. Wednesday -- as one critically ill survivor was rushed to a hospital -- families learned that their thankful jubilation was premature.

There had been a tragic "miscommunication," said mine company chief Ben Hatfield. Twelve of the 13 trapped miners had not made it. They were dead.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/01/04/mine.explosion.wed/index.html

definitely one of the biggest fuckups i\'ve been alive for.. unbelievable..

[Spacey]

fucking tragic.

[FrankZappa]

I had cnn on this morning and they were doing the what went wrong comentary. Here was what they went over:

1. Somone (unknown) was the first to say they were alive. No one knows who that was but they should come forward.
2. Within minutes of the media announcing that 12 were alive, the people in charge knew that it was incorrect, yet they waited 3 hours before announcing. How could they let the wrong information go out for 3 hours?

I couldnt believe it. First they admit that they went with a rumour, because they had no idea who it was that said they were safe (or it was them and they don\'t want to fess up_, then they try to blame the people who were in charge for not running out and correcting them. Maybe they had more important things to do, like getting #13 to a hospital?! Absolutely pathetic. Talk about passing the buck.

[Jim Cobb]

the media = everything thats wrong with our country.

[SlimPickens]

Anyone else see that woman on MSNBC who said "...I know the rest of the world thinks that people from West Virginia are stupid, but..."  As if this situation isn\'t bad enough without throwing her guilt trip about my bad attitude toward West Virginians on top of it.

[derickw]

the media = everything thats wrong with our country.

THE FUCKEN TRUTH,

Not to mention our stupid, pathetic excuse for a political system. But that’s for some other thread

[davepeck]

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/01/04/nytfrontpage/scan.jpg
http://www.chicagotribune.com/includes/news/printedition/ct_today.pdf
http://graphics.boston.com/globe/acrobat/today.jpeg
http://www.dallasnews.com/pagestore/front.pdf
http://www.sfgate.com/c/acrobat/2006/01/04/Chronicle.01-04-2006.ALL.A.1.MainNews.5star-dot.pdf
etc.

[Spacey]

sad that this day in age that we still can\'t get accurate and precise news in a timely manner

The truth is that if we as the American people want a change then we are entitled to that change. That is what Democracy is. The problem is not the media, the government, it is the laziness of the people who are so preoccupied with some facet of their life then the good of the people as a whole that we allow the media to get away with what they do and we let our President and Congress do as they please.

Stand up and take charge. The people will follow. Example is the 1960\'s. People made such a disturbance that they had to make change.

[SlimPickens]

I couldn\'t agree with you more Spaceman.

[derickw]

You might be right Spacey but if you remember the woman who started the war protest this past year and how she ended up getting in trouble for organizing or leading the protest. What happened to that lady now, the media had there way with her like a methwhore and dropped her like Michael Jackson’s diddling case(s). Unfortunately i don\'t think it\'s that easy to make the necessary changes. I think it would take a complete House cleaning to get rid of all those old ass F#$ks that are just mooching off everyone’s taxes.

Oh as an aside.... A BIG YEAH to RI for being the 11th state to legalize MaryJane for medicinal purposes

And back to the purpose of this threat, thanks to all those people that do the work i would never in my life choose to do. And a BIG FU to the media for not knowing when to keep there mouths shut till they get substantial evidence.

[SlimPickens]

The state of the news industry in the US in complete shambles.  Cable news networks are the crackwhores modern media and WE are the crack.  They will do anything to get your attention.

[Wolfman]

No kidding.  I refuse to watch the news.  There\'s no point.  You know you\'re not getting at least half the story when it\'s politcally charged stuff like Iraq.  And even when it\'s not politically charged, like this mine thing, they still end up reporting false news.  A lot of it is not their fault too because everyone lies to cover their own ass in this age of lawsuit-waiting-to-happen.  My own assumptions have just as much chance of being correct as the news reports do in any situation, so why bother with the news.

[FrankZappa]

exactly the reasons why I go here for my news.

[skalnbyc]

Why do people have such unflagging trust of international news agencies?  Are they less likely to craft manipulative stories?  I really doubt it.  

Is the BBC known as a generally reputable source (unlike the NY Times)?

My cup of tea is the Wall Street Journal, no b.s. over there (probably wouldn\'t appeal to most .inforumers though).

[SlimPickens]

I don\'t like to rely on any one source for news.  I juggle MSNBC, NPR, NY Times, WSJ, and of course the local rag CTPost.  Different days, different papers.  XM radio is awesome for variety during the day.  

I also like throwing a few blogs into the mix (media matters, wonkette, huffington) when I have down time during the day for juicy stories that may in fact be lies but are nontheless entertaining.  

But after today, I think MSNBC is gonna be dropped from the mix (except for Imus).