http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001804432Editors Defend or Explain False Mine Rescue Stories
NEW YORK The fallout from incorrect reports of the West Virginia mining tragedy continued for newspapers nationwide Wednesday morning with some editors taking some blame for initially reporting the wrong story, and others saying they did everything possible to get the correct information out as they knew it.
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The timing of the first reports, just as many papers on the East Coast were hitting their first deadlines, resulted in many editions carrying the incorrect, positive news. Since the correct version of events was not released until about 3 a.m., many papers were not able to run a correct version until their final editions went out, although most changed it on their Web sites.
The Boston Globe, with a circulation of about 414,000, managed to get the correct story into 50,000 copies of its final edition, according to editor Martin Baron. He said the paper actually dumped 30,000 copies with the wrong story and replaced them with 30,000 extra copies offering the corrected version.
Baron said the coverage was as good as could be expected, given the timing of events and the fact that the original reports were coming from rescue workers, government officials, and families of the miners. "It seemed we handled it just fine all along the way," said Baron. "It's not like people were working with no information. There were officials commenting on this. As it turned out, wrong information was given out."
Baron added that if the paper had held off on the story and it turned out to be true, it would have drawn criticism for waiting too long. "At some point, you've got to print a paper," he said. "I don't know what else you can do."
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