One Miner Found Alive
Death is always sad, and when men are lost in their prime it seems especially sad.
This morning, much of America woke to headlines that 12 miners had been found alive, and just one dead, after a mine accident near Buckhannon, West Virginia. Three hours later, we learned the numbers were reversed - 12 dead, just one alive - a 27 year old father of two. Family members were taken from tremendous joy and relief to tremendous pain and grief.
Quite naturally, the originally incorrect news added to their grief and anguish.
I am watching CNN this afternoon, and listening as the press eggs on these family members and other citizens of the town in their anger at the incorrect news. Who was responsible - not for the mine catastrophe, but for first releasing incorrect news?! The press seems besides itself, and many of the family members and neighbors they now interview equally seem more outraged by this fact than by the deaths themselves.
How despicable and sad is the press. And what a sad commentary it is on our society when the question of whether the news was immediately correct overshadows the deaths of 12 men, and the miraculous rescue of one. Why, in these circumstances, must we hold authorities and others to a standard of perfection we would never demand of ourselves? I would like to think that put in the position of the survivors, I would have little interest in the public release of news, at least compared to the pain of the loss itself. Now the "news" story is overshadowing the underlying tragedy, and it is sad event, and a symptom of a greater societal illness.
We have become a very angry society indeed.
Follow-up: I'm watching the press conference now on this. My gosh, the American press is a disgrace. What a bunch of insensitive, stupid, intellectual lightweights.
This morning, much of America woke to headlines that 12 miners had been found alive, and just one dead, after a mine accident near Buckhannon, West Virginia. Three hours later, we learned the numbers were reversed - 12 dead, just one alive - a 27 year old father of two. Family members were taken from tremendous joy and relief to tremendous pain and grief.
Quite naturally, the originally incorrect news added to their grief and anguish.
I am watching CNN this afternoon, and listening as the press eggs on these family members and other citizens of the town in their anger at the incorrect news. Who was responsible - not for the mine catastrophe, but for first releasing incorrect news?! The press seems besides itself, and many of the family members and neighbors they now interview equally seem more outraged by this fact than by the deaths themselves.
How despicable and sad is the press. And what a sad commentary it is on our society when the question of whether the news was immediately correct overshadows the deaths of 12 men, and the miraculous rescue of one. Why, in these circumstances, must we hold authorities and others to a standard of perfection we would never demand of ourselves? I would like to think that put in the position of the survivors, I would have little interest in the public release of news, at least compared to the pain of the loss itself. Now the "news" story is overshadowing the underlying tragedy, and it is sad event, and a symptom of a greater societal illness.
We have become a very angry society indeed.
Follow-up: I'm watching the press conference now on this. My gosh, the American press is a disgrace. What a bunch of insensitive, stupid, intellectual lightweights.
posted by The Centerman | 2:25 PM
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