Mining Disaster Heroes

"A lot of the media left to go to the church where family members were located, but I stayed put because this was where every official news conference was given--and we never got anything official here. Something was not right. Then we were hearing reports that 12 ambulances had gone in [to the mine area] but only one was coming out. There was so much hype that no one considered the fact that there was no [official] update."
Linda Skidmore, editor of The Intermountain News

Imagine that, actually waiting for confirmation before running with a story. Linda Skidmore is editor of the Intermountain News. Becky Wagoner is a reporter for the paper. While CNN, ABC, the New York Times and God knows who else got the miner story wrong the local news paper didn't go with the story.

That's right. The local people reported what should have remained a local story in the first place. Maybe Geraldo Rivera can go back to being a war correspondent and West Virginians will never have to look at him again.

Thanks to Editor and Publisher for the Intermountain story.