[Mb-civic] In a rush to report, the truth becomes a casualty - Joan Vennochi - Boston Globe Op-Ed

[William Swiggard]

  In a rush to report, the truth becomes a casualty

By Joan Vennochi  |  January 5, 2006  |  The Boston Globe

EVERYONE WANTED a miracle, from the families of the trapped miners, to 
the mine company owners, to cable TV. When this miracle turned into a 
disaster, newspapers paid the price.

It is hard to read the cruelly incorrect stories from Sago, W. Va., that 
were published in many Wednesday morning newspapers, including some 
early editions of the Globe, and not entertain grim thoughts about the 
challenge faced by print media.

The old journalistic adage, get it first but first get it right, is both 
an albatross and a savior for modern newspapers. The struggle to keep up 
with the rush to news makes contemplative journalism a marketer's 
nightmare. On the other hand, mistakes, no matter how honestly made, 
hurt the old-line print media more than they hurt cable TV or online 
journalism.

The new media can correct course in real time. The old media's mistakes 
are cruel jokes and collector's items that greatly undercut credibility.

As we all know, cable television offers dramatic, second-by-second 
coverage of a disaster of this sort; when cable runs out of live images, 
because rescue crews are deep underground and out of camera range, the 
shows fill up air time with speculation and hypothetical scenarios that 
shape an impression of what might happen; what actually is happening is 
tangential to the cable TV plot.

Tuesday night's cable TV storyline was simple: One dead miner was 
discovered. Could the 12 remaining miners somehow be alive? Waiting to 
learn the actual news, and then reporting the ultimate truth, confirmed 
beyond a doubt, are not options for cable TV.

Neither is objectivity. The 24/7 cable news anchors and reporters 
quickly become adopted members of the worried, grieving families. The 
cable TV news crew is actively and ardently hoping, wishing and praying 
for the same miracle as the family members of the trapped miners. They 
rejoice in every sign of hope and grow melancholy when an unhappy ending 
seems probable. They are cheerleaders or professional mourners, 
depending on the latest development. They never pretend to be objective 
observers.

On Fox News yesterday, Geraldo Rivera replayed the moment when 
crazed-with-happiness family members told him, ''They're all alive!" 
''Who told you?" Rivera shouted back, bursting with as much joy as his 
news subjects. ''They just announced it," a woman yelled ecstatically. 
At that moment, it takes self-discipline to enforce classic methods of 
confirming information.

Three hours later, the story took an official and terrible turn for the 
worse. Eleven of 12 miners were dead. Jubilation turned to despair.

 From the start, was the miracle based on assumptions that needed a 
different kind of confirmation than they received? Greg Mitchell, editor 
of Editor & Publisher, blasted off a Wednesday online column that began 
by describing the incorrect news reports as ''one of the most disturbing 
and disgraceful media performances of this type in recent years." Later 
in the day, however, Mitchell deleted the word ''disgraceful" -- again, 
one of the luxuries of online journalism versus traditional print.

In a telephone interview, Mitchell said his first take on the miracle 
mine rescue might eventually show the same rush to judgment for which he 
was criticizing journalists. ''One question that has to be asked," said 
Mitchell, " is ''how much did the media spread the news? . . . the first 
question is whether the media carried the rumors, spread the rumors.' " 
Mitchell acknowledges that he does not know the answer to the question; 
and until the journalists on the scene recount their personal timetable 
and confirming sources, it is risky to draw conclusions about the 
quality of the journalism.

At a press conference yesterday, Ben Hatfield, CEO of International Coal 
Group Inc., said the mine rescue command center received a report of 
''12 alive" at 11:45 p.m. By 12:30 a.m., there were conflicting reports 
of ''only one survivor." By 2 a.m., the mine owners knew for sure that 
11 of 12 were dead. Hatfield said that if he had to do it again, he 
would have gone to the church where family members had gathered and told 
them of the conflicting report as soon as he knew it.

Cable TV and newspaper Web pages had the luxury of updating the final, 
tragic information in real time, transmitting the now heart-rending 
images of families facing cruel truth.

Newspapers were stuck with the mistake: the miracle we wanted to see.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/01/05/in_a_rush_to_report_the_truth_becomes_a_casualty/
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