It's an awful story, but you all knew that.
Three thoughts come to mind.
1. Public policy means you never, ever announce anything until you are 100 percent sure that what you are saying is 100 percent correct. Old Man Snap has experienced reporters who question the timing of public announcements, especially when the announcement is scheduled for a Monday and it doesn't happen for another two weeks. More often than not, it meant simply that the information wasn't complete or foolproof, hence the delay. Which brings us to West Virginia and the first oops.
2. Second oops. 24-hour media coverage. This incessant need to break and treat everything like it's the hugest news ever shoots reporters in the foot more often than not. Did the emergency people tell the townfolk that the miners were alive? Yes. Should the media report that? Yes. But should the media double check and make sure they report *exactly* what the emergency people think? Absolutely. Questions, questions, questions.
All too often in the rush to get the story up the ol' Web site update, what should be complete reports are whittled down to tidbits and hearsay. It's killing news credibility, and it makes Old Man Snap sad.
3. When the ol' Imus woke us up this morning, the first thing we heard was, "And the family members are planning on suing." Enough with the blaming others for trauma already. This is a tragic accident. Is it the local emergency people's fault that the miners died? No. Should they have held off saying anything until they were 100 percent sure? Absolutely, as we already said. But they were trying to help. They felt for the families and wanted them to hear the good news, when they thought there was good news.
In reality, all three of these points are defensible.
But we're just saying: please learn from this. "Message people," make damn sure what you're saying is accurate, every time. 24-hour news people, stop with the MUST BREAK THE STORY AND GET THE PUNDITS TALKING IMMEDIATELY cycle. And to the families, stop with the suing and the blaming and the "God Gawd I can buy me a lifetime's worth of Skoal" thoughts.
Whew. Now back to stuff that doesn't matter at all, only it sort of does.
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
That's us, bitching that we're looking "off page" and questioning the cropping skills of the cropper.
About Me
That's us, bitching that we're looking "off page" and questioning the cropping skills of the cropper.
Awesomeness
Blog Archive
-
▼
2006
(375)
-
▼
January
(44)
- And then we turned the TV off
- We want our money back
- And the Lions are sh*t, too.
- Fish gotta swim
- Turn around, now
- Why the iTunes rule, part 1
- If we only knew
- It explains nothing. But we're sharing anyway.
- All right
- Flashbacks, part 2
- Flashbacks
- Oh W
- Current Mood: Soaked
- Detailing stripper cars
- A whole sh*tload of luck
- After further review
- Something about an almond, well, Allman
- Something about an eagle, an eye and a cherry
- Larry Bird never said sh*t
- Our first time lasted longer
- Turning the other cheek
- The Aftermath
- Listen to this song
- Wish us luck
- Three things you never need at the gym
- About last night
- "The way it was done."
- Speaking of porn...
- Up, up and away
- In case anyone forgot
- 9.8 for difficulty, really
- But that Lachey kid on Dancing with the Stars?
- Wait. Lindsay. Let's take it slow.
- You bet.
- Um. Yeah. What, now? (part 2)
- To the bird who shat on our windshield
- Policing their own
- Apropos of one of our favorite movie quotes
- Oops
- Note to self, 2016-like
- Um. Yeah. What, now?
- To the man in the blue hat, tapping
- Haikus make the Ol' Man happy
- Oof with the Dick Clark
-
▼
January
(44)
5 comments:
I am the first to say that our society is too fast to blame and sue... but we are talking about fat cat mucky mucks who paid minumal fines instead of correcting the violations found because it was more cost effective... and that is just indiffence to human life. They have to answer for that. Not just monitarily to the families, but possibly criminally.
Yeah. But the quote that stands out is one we saw on God-awful Rita Crosby's show last night. "They died BECAUSE they lied to us." Um. No. They died days ago. Most people would comprehend that if their masks were on, and they had an hour to breathe, they were f*cked. We agree, though, as usual, with your point.
I didn't see Rita Crosby's show (don't even know who she is, no cable here), but actually just taking that quote, yes they did lie because they were lied to.
Workers were told by the managemnt of teh company they worked for that the mine they were working for was deemed safe and that any voilations that received were corrected right away. The majority of the violations were not corrected and the mine was not safe.
Again with the good point. The context of the quote was the family reacting to the news that they were alive, and the news they were dead.
Maybe one reason this hits close to home is in the oldern days, our ancestors mined for coal in Pennsylvania. Everyone knew the dangers. But it was a living. Some left and found other work because they didn't want to succumb to lung disease, or, worse, suffocation in the mine.
All we're saying is pretty much everyone these days is hellaquick to blame anything or anybody. They were miners. Accidents happen in mines. Everyone acts like this is a surprise.
Can we talk about Jessica Alba now?
who?
Post a Comment