I am not too sure about this...

Michelle Malkin: THE MINER TRAGEDY: WHAT WENT WRONG?

Almost everyone knows by now that the initial reports of 12 survivors at the Sago mine collapse were horribly wrong. Instead of 12 survivors there was one. Now the coverage has shifted to what went wrong with the coverage of the story, as it should. This ranks with Dewey beats Truman for news blunders, but I am not sure about this bit from Michelle Malkin:

I didn't watch the TV coverage, but it's clear the coal mining company, International Coal Group, has a lot to answer for. Via IOL:

Grieving family members 'lunged at company officials'

Family members of victims in a fatal mining accident became enraged and lunged at a coal company official after being told today that only one of 13 miners had survived a mine explosion, witnesses said.

The scene unfolded inside the Sago Baptist Church, three hours after the family members had been told that 12 of the miners had survived.

For two days, the church had been the place where family members waited anxiously for news.

Nick Helms, son of victim Terry Helms, said several family members had to wrestle one distraught man to the ground inside the church to keep him from hurting the coal company officials who were the bearers of the news.

“I immediately took my girlfriend, my sister and everyone else out of the church,” Helms said. “They were trying to get them. They were doing everything they could to get these guys.”

The tragic announcement marked the end of a 41-hour wait after the explosion at the Sago Mine on Monday morning that trapped 13 miners. Virtually everyone in the tight-knit Upshur County community was related to, or friends with, one or more of the trapped miners.

Wives, sons, daughters and friends of miners comforted one another and turned to prayer as time ticked by without any sign of life down below.

Between briefings by coal company officials, they sang religious songs. Some sat inside the church, while others waited outside on lawn chairs, wrapped in blankets.

The prospects of saving the miners dimmed as the hours went by.

At about 8pm last night (1am Irish time), coal company officials announced that one minerÂ’s body had been found near the area where the explosion occurred. However, there was hope for the remaining 12 miners because their track-mounted car was found undamaged deeper in the mine. Then, a seeming miracle: Shortly before midnight, word rushed up the hollow that 12 miners had been found alive.

Family and friends clapped in the early morning chill as a single ambulance drove away, presumably with one of the miners safely in the back.

“It just shows you enough prayers went out,” Bula Smith, 27, said as she clutched her seven-month-old daughter, Cassey, close to her. “It’s a miracle.”

The crowd gathered outside the church burst into a chorus of How Great Thou Art as family and friends threw themselves into each otherÂ’s arms.

Their euphoria was short-lived...

Maybe I am just reading her article wrong in a preceeding portion she writes (actually excerpts from Editor and Publisher):

Anderson Cooper, the CNN host, ripped the coal company at 3 a.m. for not correcting the wrong reports for so long, but did not explain why CNN went with the good news without strong confirmation...

...It took three hours for the coal company to correct the reports. It is unclear why the media carried the news without proper sourcing. Some reports claim the early reports spread via cell phones and when loved ones started celebrating most in the media simply joined in...

It may just be poor punctuation, which God knows I am guilty of myself quite often, but it appears that she is blaming the company for the rumor.

I am not going to defend the company. From what I have heard there have been numerous safety violations at this mine, and it is in dispute how many have been resolved, but I don't think it is fair to blame them for this particular piece of this tragedy.

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