Terrible News for the New Year

It was quite a shock to wake up this morning and hear that the news had shifted 100% and that there was only one surviving miner, who is in critical condition. My heart goes out to the families who are now suffering so cruelly after celebrating their loved ones' rescue.

The media across the board need to step back and do some major self-examination. The media may say they were just reporting on what they were seeing and hearing, but isn't that how so many false stories were circulated as fact after Hurricane Katrina? I flipped among three cable news stations last night for the better part of two hours, and I didn't hear the cautionary words "We do not have official confirmation." The anchors and reporters were, in some cases, as ebullient as anyone on the scene at the church, celebrating the "miracle" and conducting reaction interviews as though the rescue were fact.

As happened with reporters on the freeway overpass and elsewhere after Hurricane Katrina, the journalists got too close to the story and indeed, became part of the story, rather than standing back objectively to assess the facts.

More on this sad story from the Los Angeles Times. (Registration may be required.)