I'm ALMOST speechless...

[Amby Leigh]

If this would be more fitting in the “To be or not to be” area, please move it.
I just have to say that I am absolutely appalled…

At 11:49 P.M.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/01/04/miners.celebrations.ap/index.html

And now at 3:30 A.M.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/01/04/mine.explosion/index.html


I am almost speechless on this one… ALMOST is the key work.
They knew with 20 minutes of the first report, they knew that not ALL of them were alive. If there was a miscommunication, it should have been correct RIGHT away! They let those people get their hopes up, thinking they were going to see their loved ones again any minute.
Whomever let those poor people go on for three hours believing that there loved ones were alive should be shot.

[Windy*]

Oh yes. What a miracle.

BS.

[Zangya]

Oh yes. What a miracle.

BS.

.......

I was really pissed when I heard that they gave out the wrong information. O.o I mean..wtf...?

[Zangya]

I heard on the radio that there was some kind of connection mess up or something...and that it was misheard...O.o

[Amby Leigh]

I do not blame anyone for the miscommunication. That is understandable, but I DO however blame the company for letting it goes so long uncorrected.

They knew within 20 to 40 minutes that the original transition was wrong but they said nothing for 3 hours. Then they tried to cover their tracks with saying that they never confirmed it and all this stuff when there were all these witnesses from in the church that told the media that they were told by officials from the mine company that the miners were being given water and treatment and that they were coming down to the church any minute to be reunited with there families.

For once, I don’t blame the media. From what I saw they were in the same spot as those people in the church were. In fact, they were getting all their information from the people in the church who all say they got their information from the people with the mining company.

It is the mining company’s fault for not getting on camera earlier and saying, “We cannot confirm this information. Please don’t get your hopes up.” And it’s also quite possible that this whole THING is the mining companies fault. They had over 200 code violations in the last year, 18 of which was means for an immediate halt in production, and it appears they did nothing to address the violations.

[Zangya]

Let me simplify this for you (not being rude, but really, I'll break it down so it's not all tl;dr)

The miners communicated via radios, as did the rescue team. Anyone who knows anything about radios will know that any joe-blow can tune in to the exact frequency they are operating on. Radio waves are more powerful and will penetrate the rock better than a regular cellphone. Naturally, it's dark, the rescuers don't know what to expect... They mentioned that there are some people that might be needing medical attention (OBVIOUSLY... what else are they going to say? Hold off on the medical relief, because we're pretty certain they are blown to smitherenes anyway) -- they did NOT say "ALL THIRTEEN PEOPLE ARE ALIVE!!!!" -- people turned general conversing, planning, and coordination between rescue workers, a passing statement: "people might need medical attention" into "company has made a formal announcement that everybody is alive!"

It's not the fault of the company -- they were simply doing their job. Unfortunately, shit happens. However, had the news outlets and people actually taken the time to confirm the sources none of this would have happened.

In fact, if people had kept their bloody noses out of it in the first place, they wouldn't be so let down by the news. This is what happens. Companies, especially companies that own a high-risk business, don't make announcements they can not confirm or deny. They keep their mouth shut until they are 150% certain, and THEN make the announcement... The celebrations were out of their control, and not something that was anticipated since normally, people wait for these types of thing to be confirmed by the company BEFORE celebrating...

It was a shitty situation turned shittier by people with big mouths gabbing to people in a vulnerable situation. There is nobody to blame for the celebration than the people with the big mouths, and the news organisations who gave the "false positive"


....aaaahhhh...i see

[Jessica Adnee]

....aaaahhhh...i see

Great input.

Anyway, my take on the whole situation was that it was kind of like a high school rumor going from, "He likes her" to "They like each other" to "They're going out" eventually to "He screwed her in the school parking lot."

What I'm wondering is why there was such a large outburst about this. I mean, it's all people were talking about.

It's sad but I didn't picture it as being such big news that it would be the main topic of conversation, even in the conversations of the less than informed groups.

[Amby Leigh]

Which announcement? In that last part? I said they should have come out and said something like that earlier.

What I want to know is why is it then that all these people from inside the church are saying that people WITH THE MINING COMPANY are telling them that the miners are alive for three hours? Okay, even if all the telling were in the first 40 minutes, why would they let it go on for three hours like that? Every minute longer then from when they discovered the truth was to long to let those people go on thinking they were going to be reunited with their loved ones. The MOMENT they found out someone should have said something.

I watched for myself about five different live interviews from eyewitnesses that all said that there were people with the mining company telling them these things. Not the media, the mining company. One person even fingered an official as telling the people he was driving up to bring the miners back with him.

[Jessica Adnee]

Which announcement? In that last part? I said they should have come out and said something like that earlier.

What I want to know is why is it then that all these people from inside the church are saying that people WITH THE MINING COMPANY are telling them that the miners are alive for three hours? Okay, even if all the telling were in the first 40 minutes, why would they let it go on for three hours like that? Every minute longer then from when they discovered the truth was to long to let those people go on thinking they were going to be reunited with their loved ones. The MOMENT they found out someone should have said something.

I watched for myself about five different live interviews from eyewitnesses that all said that there were people with the mining company telling them these things. Not the media, the mining company. One person even fingered an official as telling the people he was driving up to bring the miners back with him.

Well, they hadn't found out yet.

I'm sure they didn't want to correct it just because the miners could have been alive.

After all, I mean, they didn't know whether they were dead or alive, right?

It doesn't matter how long the people thought that they were alive, it still hurt just as bad.

[Amby Leigh]

From that I saw in the press conference with the CEO of the mine company, they knew within 20 to 40 minutes that not all the miners were alive as they orginally thought. They did not know how many at first, but they did know that not all of them made it.

And that should have been stated. And then once they had an offical number another statement should have been made. And the CEO said that if he had a second chance, that's what should have been done orginally and what he would have done. I think that was from the Press Conference this afternoon.

[Amby Leigh]

If that's the case, then I blame these people that were "posing" as the mining company to the families and they should be sued for emotional damage by the families and should be sued by the mining company as well.

And you seem to be missing that I am saying that even if they were not 100% sure, when they say how out of hands thing were getting they should have said something. That's how I feel, like it or not. And I respect how you feel... but nothing you say will change my opinion as I'm sure is the same why for you.

[Nanuri]

So what are they going to say?

"Just to let you know not everybody is alive but that's it see ya tomorrow guys"

"Oh by the way, a few people are alive!"

"Nope, wait, sorry chaps, nobody is alive"

"Oh hey, this guy is breathing!"

"No... no that's just a rock moving"

Exactly. Just because they had information--possibly solid, but who knows?--that not everyone was alive, they can't give minute-by-minute, blow-by-blows of what's going on. They don't want to be sued for saying shit that isn't true, so they won't. Their company reputation is on the line and they aren't going to screw it up over a few people celebrating over some crazy rumor. As Nikkita said... people were going to celebrate no matter what was confirmed or denied.

EDIT: I would also like to add that at the time this news coverage was going on (and we all know that the TV news media is a lot more sensationalistic and mindless than the print media), the newspapers weren't wiring stories about anything except the one man who was CONFIRMED dead. Yeah, no one was taking any chances except the stupid people running wild with hearsay and making it the truth.

[SonicFrontier]

You are my new favorite internet person Nikkita, please take me under your wing and teach me your ways. ;o;

Alright so it's not spam, this is what I think.

I believe that someone overheard what was being said, mistook it the wrong way and bulked up the meaning of it. From "we have 12 people" to "we have 12 people, alive." and then spread the word. They didn't say anything for the amount of time that they did because they didn't have the official word and by that time everyone thought everyone was okay. It was on the news that they were found alive, and that means someone fucked up somewhere. It got way out of hand.

The mining company was doing their job and I don't think they did anything wrong. Whats done is done and in the end we have 11 dead people and 1 in a coma fighting for life. Doesn't really matter about what has happened, their focus should be on the future.

[Jessica Adnee]

You are my new favorite internet person Nikkita, please take me under your wing and teach me your ways. ;o;

Uh, yea, way to spam.

Anyway, back on topic, is the guy that survived still alive? I remember hearing that he was beat up pretty bad but what from?

[SonicFrontier]

Anyway, back on topic, is the guy that survived still alive? I remember hearing that he was beat up pretty bad but what from?

He is in a coma, but he is alive. They say he'll have some form of brain damage from the lack of oxygen to his organs. That's if he lives, he's fighting for life and it's still a toss up.

[fukkatsu]

It really was like a bad dream. I went to bed all excited and happy that they had found all of them... relieved that everyone was all right and that miracles could happen but when I woke up and saw the reality... it just hit me so hard.

It was almost unreal. It still is. I am just glad that no one suffered. That they all went peacefully. I think that is the only thing that I can think positively about.

[ig.]

By the way, some more miners died. The media is jumping on the news over upgrading mine safety. To paraphrase a German proverb, it appears that the man on the mountain finally recovered his big egg.

[Gabi Star]

Miscommunication and a lack of back checking in media leads to dangerous, dangerous situations.

One word for you all; Steven Glass (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Glass)

[Jessica Adnee]

Miscommunication and a lack of back checking in media leads to dangerous, dangerous situations.

One word for you all; Steven Glass (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Glass)


EDIT: We're going to pretend that I wasn't so dense that I didn't get it, kay? ^^;

[Gabi Star]

Oh, that is two words, isn't it? XD My mistake.

Steven Glass is a classic case of the media not fact-checking and thus proceeding to publish completely wrong information.

[Nanuri]

No worries Posed, Pixie thinks she's a mod :D

And I totally agree with the Steven Glass mention... he's the poster child for our American media -_-;;;

I'm glad that the field is finally getting some attention in the dangerousness respect, but really this whole episode was blown out of proportion in relation to other world events.

[ig.]

No worries Posed, Pixie thinks she's a mod :D

...So THAT explains why no more than two people like her!!!! We-e-e-e-ird

[Gabi Star]

...So THAT explains why no more than two people like her!!!! We-e-e-e-ird


o: That's not very nice at all, Ig! ):

[Jessica Adnee]

o: That's not very nice at all, Ig! ):

It's okay, it doesn't bother me. I deserve it. ^^;

And as far as my previous post... I feel dense. >.< I even READ the thing and didn't get it.

THIS IS THE EFFECT OF NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND!!


... that or too many doritos. :-D

[Gabi Star]

It's okay, it doesn't bother me. I deserve it. ^^;

And as far as my previous post... I feel dense. >.< I even READ the thing and didn't get it.

THIS IS THE EFFECT OF NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND!!


... that or too many doritos. :-D


Doritos?! -smacks your hand- Fried foods are bad! They'll give you cancer! Here are so nice carrot sticks.