WV Tragedy another blow to media trust

Michelle Malkin's coverage here pretty much offers the whole sordid thing on a platter.

This seems to me to be very much a reaffirmation of the problems we had with communication & the media during the worst of Katrina coverage. Journalists, lacking any solid stuff, ran with rumors, not even recognizing that the rumors could be so far off the mark.

It's not entirely their fault -- we news junkies want instant gratification, after all, and the team which isn't first loses just about everything. But the real problem will always be confirmation. If you can't prove it, you shouldn't say it (and, sometimes, even if you can prove it, you should keep it to yourself, especially if somebody else could get hurt).

Nevertheless, the damage is done not just to the families involved in the Sago mine disaster, but again to the MSM's credibility. They betrayed themselves in their haste to report what was overheard.

I used to take some delight in mocking my own local newspaper for its questionable abilities to find, let alone report a fire in its own offices. The Daily Review Atlas has long been a source of humor in our town, simply because it is a small-town daily, struggling to find its way in a quiet little community. But for all its failings, it still, usually, provides some service, and it still, usually, is trustworthy (it had some rocky years, back before I returned to town, I gather, but the last editor did manage to talk it back from the ledge). Monmouth has, at least, been served, if not always served well, by the DRA.

I think I can not say the same, recently, of CNN, ABC News, NBC News, See BS, or, even, to some extent, of FOX News. The newspapers, too, nationwide, are failing to do their true job, in their haste to make ratings or make political hay.

The job of the news media must always be to provide information so that the public may make correct decisions concerning the good of the nation and the good of their households. News reporters are not supposed to be news makers. Their failure makes our lives more difficult and more dangerous, since we now have nobody we can feel we trust to bring us facts.

I sincerely hope the bloggers can pick up the slack until the MSM figure out how to fix what they've broken.