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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.
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Full disclosure: I'm a journalist. As is Anderson Cooper. He is not a miner by profession. Neither were the other reporters covering this story. Neither were most of the viewers. CNN and other media did, however, interview mining experts. This is how we cover stories and then put in context, through questions posed to experts, what this information means.
This is all we have been talking about in my newsroom. For those critical of how the media handled this, consider the following: When a governor and a congressional representative tell you something is true, as in this case, you regard them as authoritative sources. The idea that this information would have gotten out in any form without being confirmed was unimaginable.
This is the situation newspapers faced late Tuesday/early Wednesday: At 11:52 p.m., The Associated Press moved a news alert that the 12 remaining miners had been found alive. Details that followed had the governor confirming this. With that confirmation, papers remade their front pages and went to press. Our final edition, for example, went to press at 1:20 a.m. Our press run was completed at 2:30 a.m. Twenty-seven minutes later, the AP issued another news alert with the horrible truth that only one miner had survived. There was nothing we or so many other papers in the Eastern United States could do except be incredulous and extremely frustrated.