(Tallmansville, West Virginia) Contrary to earlier reports that twelve miners survived, officials are reporting that there is only one survivor.
Mine company officials have confirmed that only one of the 13 miners who hadn't been heard from since an early Monday morning explosion at an Upshur County, W.Va., mine survived the ordeal.
Ben Hatfield, CEO of Sago Mine owner International Coal Group, told reporters that there was a "miscommunication" earlier when rescuers in the mine that had indicated all 12 miners were alive.
Hatfield said the initial report from the rescue team to the command center indicated multiple survivors, but that information was incorrect.
The survivor, 27-year-old Randal L. McCloy, was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital in Buckhannon, W.Va. McCloy is listed in critical condition early Wednesday morning.
Condolences to the families who lost their loved ones.
1
Wretchard
has an interesting post about making decisions under conditions of uncertainty that applies to this error, as well as the general problem of accurate reporting and intelligence. The defense is unlikely to occur to MSM, however, because they need to ignore it in order to crucify the Bush Administration for "lying about Iraq's WMD." Well, at least not bothering to keep the database clean and up to date.
Posted by: Demosophist at January 04, 2006 10:28 AM (7xkTw)
2
Rescue OPS are professionals. I personally doubt there would be a "mis-communication" between them - more like a cautious and reserved analysis constantly evolving during find/recovery stage which would take possibly several hours.
Scratch this story deep enough, and I bet your gonna find an over-eager media in a rush to file a story - and the media sources being essentially each other.
Read the media "stories" and the filler detail. Since the initial point of the story is wrong - the filler information is clearly manufactured - with the media sourcing each other.
We have a lot of complaints about the media, but seldom do we acknowledge their incompetence and laziness.
This is a classic.
Posted by: hondo at January 04, 2006 10:41 AM (3aakz)
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This morning on CNN some of the relatives of the victims said the CEO of the mining corporation relayed the message that the twelve men were alive, personally.
Posted by: dave at January 04, 2006 11:34 AM (CcXvt)
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The search is on for a scapegoat for MSM CYA. Note - Command CTR - presspool - live cameras - SAT links - no record - it didn't come from there - so where?
A rumor was all they needed - then they quote/source each other - once on the air local people believe it - MSM mentality - if people believe it - it must be true - a circle by another name.
Back to the story - since it wasn't true - all the after filler 'bout hospitals, conditions, technical reports were - all MSM manufactured.
Posted by: hondo at January 04, 2006 12:25 PM (3aakz)
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So how can we blame this one on the europeans and socialism in general ?
Posted by: rob at January 04, 2006 02:06 PM (QpkBe)
Posted by: hondo at January 04, 2006 02:09 PM (3aakz)
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One of our customers here and I can't say sorry has four employees that were married to miners who died.
Posted by: Howie at January 04, 2006 03:37 PM (D3+20)
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The MSM demonstrate their "vetting" abilities and rigorous checking of sources.
Posted by: Jesusland Carlos at January 04, 2006 05:14 PM (8e/V4)
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