West Virginia 'miracle' a mirage

A West Virginian explosion that took the lives of 12 coal miners created confusion for Hoosier media audiences and editors. \nInitial reports from the Associated Press that surfaced late Tuesday night said 12 of 13 miners had been found alive and many newspapers, including The Bloomington Herald-Times and The Indianapolis Star, published reports in their Wednesday editions that said the miners had been found alive.\nHowever, early reports Wednesday morning confirmed that only one of 13 miners had survived, leaving most daily newspapers on newsstands with incorrect headlines and stories.\nThe Herald-Times published a graphic at the top of its front page that read, "Mine Rescue: Family members report 12 trapped miners found alive." Allen Breed wrote the story, and it was transferred nationally by the wire service The Associated Press. It reported the miners were found alive and was accompanied by a headline that read, "Twelve miners found alive," on page C1.\nBreed had no reason to question the validity of the reports, said Brad Hamm, dean of the IU School of Journalism.\n"The circumstances were extremely difficult," Hamm said. "It's very easy for us to judge because we know the outcome, but we know (the reporters) didn't make it up. The people in the community believed it."\nHamm blamed the misinformation on the timing of the story in relation to newspaper deadlines and the absence of correct reports provided by International Coal Group Inc., the owner of the mine.\n"They let it play for a long time and I think probably they were overwhelmed by the reality of what to do," he said. "But they should have stepped forward and said, 'That's not true.'"\nBob Zaltsberg, editor of The Herald-Times said late-breaking news stories are difficult for daily newspapers to cover. \n"When something happens at midnight, newspapers try to get the news in," Zaltsberg said. "When it's learned that the information might be false, there's nothing that can be done about it."\nWhen Zaltsberg learned the story was inaccurate, The Herald-Times changed the story on its Web site and started working on a new story for Thursday's edition, he said. Thursday's story in The Herald-Times featured a local focus on coal mines in Indiana and a sidebar that showed how other news organizations attempted to fix their mistakes.\nZaltsberg wrote a column that will appear in Monday's edition and said reader feedback has been fairly positive.\n"The ones I talked to yesterday had said, 'Hey, you got that story wrong.' When I explained to them what happened, they were very understanding," he said.\nThough the Indiana Daily Student did not publish either Wednesday or Thursday, incoming editor in chief Rick Newkirk said he would have likely published a story that reported the miners were found alive.\n"It would be nice of me to say I would have (not printed the story), but I imagine I would have been caught up in the sensationalism of the story," Newkirk said.\nThough newspapers were stuck with incorrect headlines and stories for a whole day, this incident is not likely to reduce the readers' trust, said Jill Geisler, leadership and management group leader at the non-profit journalism school the Poynter Institute.\n"This was non-abhorrent behavior," Geisler said. "This was problematic and a wake-up call. The most important thing of mainstream journalism is it holds itself accountable, which is why you're doing this story."\nNewspapers did not do a good enough job of attribution, she said.\nDennis Ryerson, editor and vice president of The Star, was not available at press time.