Reuters: US news media caught up in erroneous happy ending

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http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N046228.htm

US news media caught up in erroneous happy ending
05 Jan 2006 03:06:54 GMT

Source: Reuters

By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES, Jan 4 (Reuters) - U.S. news outlets defended their coverage of the fatal West Virginia mine accident on Wednesday, saying misinformed authorities, not the media, were to blame for erroneously reporting that 12 victims had miraculously survived.

News that all but one of 13 trapped miners had actually perished, which came three hours after the opposite outcome was mistakenly reported, left network anchors and newspaper editors hard-pressed to explain how they all had gotten the story wrong.

Some critics suggested the media were driven by a mix of sloppy journalism, a herd mentality among "celebrity anchors" and the irresistible allure of a happy ending.

But media executives defended their coverage of the disaster, saying their reports were based on multiple, authoritative sources, including West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, who turned out to have the wrong information.
"We had it on very good authority from figures who ought to know, the governor and a congressman, that those miners were alive, and we reported it. And as soon as we knew otherwise, we reported that too," Jonathan Klein, president of CNN/US, told Reuters.

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1. But CNN think they were PERFECT!

No such regrets were felt at CNN. ''Our coverage was outstanding on every level,'' said Jonathan Klein, the network's president.

''Unlike print, which has to live with its mistakes etched in stone, TV is able to correct itself immediately,'' he said. ''I think the audience accepts that.''

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Mine-Explosion-Media.html