My condolences to the families affected. It seems like these tragedies will never end.

Sometimes?

My opinion is that their lust for "facts" and the competitive edge foster misinformation given to the public.

That is not to say that they are responsible for the tragic mistake in announcing that the twelve remaining miners were alive. I suspect that it will be discovered that someone -- probably a low level someone -- who works for the company made a serious error. I don't think there was anything purposful. The problem is, I think, that reporters hear that kind of thing and report it. Even if they disclaim it as unsubstantiated, it becomes fact to some people and rumors spread.

Again, that may not be true in this case, but it is a danger in highly competitive news situations where all of the reporting is live. There's no safety net in case of bad information or a reporter to mis-speaks.

How absolutely horrible. I went to bed feeling extremely happy for those families, my mom called this morning and asked me if I heard about the miners and how terrible it was. I still thought they had lived, and when she told me they all died but one.....wow.....

When I went to bed last night, there was only the one who had been found dead, and everything was looking good. Waking up to having all but one of the remaining miners dead was such a shock, a grieving disappointment beyond words.

From what I've heard, someone overheard two of the company men talking on a cellphone, and ran into the church saying that the other 12 were alive! Then the company came in to say that 11 had died, and one was in critical condition - I cannot begin to imagine the plunge from euphoria to dispair.

God bless their families, and all of the people who gave their all to try to rescue them. If you pray, keep Randy McCloy in prayer, that at least he will survive!

I'm very sorry to hear about the loss of life. I will wait until I hear more about how the "miscommunication" was miscommunicated before I solidify my opinion.

I don't mean to sound insensitive but I am curious to know what the salary of a coal miner is. Can anyone tell me?

Thanks.

I heard that someone from the media overheard a cell phone conversation where they said they found the miners and were checking vital signs. Apparently they took that to mean that they were alive. The governor said the crowd in the church went into a joyous uproar and he asked what was going on and was told that they found 12 miners alive. I figure, if the governor hadn't been told by anybody official, it shouldn't have been speculated on. He found out after about 20 minutes that they had been found but it was unknown what their medical status was.

Unfortunate, yes, common, yes. When we had the big black out of '03, as we were leaving our building we were hearing all kinds of rumors about how wide spread it was. We knew all of metro Detroit was out, but I heard a woman say that the power was out from California to New York.. the entire country. When chaos and high emotion are running rampant, there will be misinformation.

Well, also take into account that the closest Anderson Cooper has probably ever been to coal is a coal black cashmere blazer or something of the like.

As far as salary, I looked it up and I'd say around $40K a year. In the areas where the mines are located, that is good money.

Boy, I'd hate to be printing that retraction. That's crazy. Our local news was showing off the USA Today headlines this morning. Our local paper got the correct information though. I suppose deadlines were different (as was the time zone.)

Still, a sad day for the families and friends of the victims. :(

This whole thing is just horrible. :(

I think the misinformation was more of a fault of the mining company and for once not the media. Apparently there was a 1145 pm press conference held by the mining company announcing the positive outcome . Then, even though the brass knew by 1230 am at the latest that only one poor soul was alive, the mining company left those families in a state of false relief for 3 hours before they broke the news. Simply negligent....

Just like the reports of rapes in the Superdome.

There was no press conference saying they were alive. It was pure speculation.

My friend has been mining since he graduated from high school and is making close to $20 an hour. That's why many people mine: you don't need a college degree and you can support your family pretty well (at least by WV standards; it's fairly cheap living here).

I saw the tapes of the press conferences on ABC World News Tonight Wed. Edition.