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found in the dark
by chris at 04:56 AM on January 04, 2006
Mining accidents and submarine accidents turn us all into miners and sailors for a time. Or maybe it's just that tragedy focuses empathy like a laser that burns through us all slowly until we know the fate of people who are suddenly just like us, except they're trapped in a mine or a submarine.
Hope is painful. I was hoping that the 13 miners trapped in Virginia would be found alive, despite the lack of communication, and the deadly carbon monoxide levels found after drilling exploratory rescue holes.
I was working on a cabinet in the basement when a sense relief swept over me as I heard the news on the radio that the 12 miners had been found alive. I came upstairs and turned the TV to CNN to see Anderson Cooper on location outside the mine talking about the story, and seeing people celebrate on the news. Everyone looked so happy.
Several hours later my cabinet was finished, and I turned on the news again. Anderson was still there, talking to people reveling and cheery at the good news, asking them if they had heard the church bells ringing to signify that the miners had been found. One miner had been taken to the hospital and Anderson kept talking about how the other miners were fine and were going to meet the family members at a church nearby. But he kept waiting. And waiting.
Then a woman he had talked to earlier came running up to say that the miners were not alive. Only one had survived and the other 11 were dead. She had just come from a meeting at the church, where the company officials were talking to the families. Screaming could be heard in the background. The families were stunned and angry, chaos had broken out.
Anderson looked stunned. The mood had suddenly changed from optimism and happiness, back to confusion, sadness, and almost anger. He kept trying to get her to say exactly what she had heard.
There's going to be a lot of false headlines printed. Tomorrow's USA Today reads, "12 miners found alive." People went to bed thinking the miners were alive, but will wake up to find that they are dead. Now as I watch the news everyone is backtracking, trying to figure out how bad information got out and floated everyone on a cloud for 3 hours. Ben Hatfield, the president of the coal company is being peppered with questions from the press, and he's struggling.
It seems clear to me. Everyone wants perfect information, right now. The moment someone on the rescue team finds the miners, and at least one shows signs of life, the information is going to spread like wildfire, because the human need is so great. And whether the information is good or complete, our desire for it is like dry brush waiting for a spark on a windy day.
No one in the communication chain is a skeptic, parsing out certainty from the confusion. Now that the miscommunication is out no one can understand how the information wasn't perfect. But we don't live in a perfect world. Black and white concepts like living or dead aren't always immediately apparent. Maybe the miners were dying as they were found. Sometimes, two miles down a mine shaft, it's hard to tell if a fully clothed, partially warm body of someone who has been trapped underground for 40 hours is dead or alive. With cell phones and people overhearing things, it can be hard to reconstruct how we think we know something that we feel certain of.
The families are angry and feel they've been lied to. The one miner who survived will wake up to a difficult and guilt ridden world. Sometimes life throws curve balls. Like trying to rescue those twelve men, whether it's thinking, or digging, or communicating with others, we simply have to do the best we can. Twelve men are dead. Let's not learn nothing from it.
comments (5)
You mean eleven men are dead, right?
Between channels 501 and 534 our televisions sport news channels. BBC 24, ITV, SKY, FOX, CNN... Flicking between them helps usually. Local news makes the Six O'Clock showing, though. If it ain't worth knowing nationwide right NOW, it ain't worth knowing locally until people are sitting down after dinner taking in some TV.
London bombings, the number of dead was like a hit counter on different channels. Like some kind of pants game show, same with 9/11. Different on all channels until at least one channel certified a source, and then maybe within ten minutes the others would catch up. I remember cameras stopping in the streets of New York on a frightened guy saying jets have been scrambled, and the Pentagon is under attack. S'like, dude, get the camera off of him, you're creating a panic. How does he know what's going on elsewhere, what is he watching himself on a nearby television and taking his own rant as official news? Then another channel would get ahead in the closest estimation game... madness. News as it happens... is flawed. Show us the images, describe what you KNOW has just happened, and don't report anything until it is a known FACT! If it isn't FACT! It isn't NEWS... its horse shit drama and guess work. It's like a sports commentator offering a comentary on a stray dog hanging around his house... (parp)
"He appears to be... yes he's pissing all over my lawn. He's heading toward the neighbours kid, looks like he's gonna ravage him... wait, I can't see, the hedge is in the way... the kid must be in so much pain... I'm running there now, this is going to be terrible! One can only imagine the terror that child must be feeling, I'm nearing the hedge... the... the kid is playing with dog! They're playing ball. My earlier comments were slightly off... "
But the people a couple streets away listening to the radio hear, "The kid must be in so much pain!" Somebody missing the broadcast asks what's going on... and gets, "Some young kid is being ravaged by a stray dog." He works for a television news channel, calls in, says some kid is being ravaged by a dog... they air it. And while our sports commentator is talking about a lil kid and a dog playing fetch on one channel, on another this kid is dying and in need of help.
News people calling their guess work news makes for bad television. I'm all for yesterdays news today... not two minutes ago sort of news slightly true right now! If it ain't happening right on my doorstep, to me, I'd sooner not know ta. I'll catch up with it all tomorrow. Fnar.
by Ex Crimson Guard NCO at January 4, 2006 6:19 PM
Funny (in a morbid sort of way) that this post comes one year exactly after my tsunami post. It is at once sick and perfectly human that most people are no more moved by the deaths of 12 miners then they were by 90,000 (or 150,000 thousand, if you remember the first estimates) Pacific islanders. Should they be? I don't know.
I don't watch local or network news anymore. Occasionally I'll stop on CNN, FoxNews, or MSNBC. I'd actually caught Cooper last night, before the minors were found alive then dead, being berated by the anchor in the studio for not having more information. With as many channels for news and information as there are now, how little more do we actually know about anything?
by mg at January 4, 2006 9:05 PM
The question should be, how much do we need to know?
"Five fat guys are trapped in a well just two streets away from Crimson's house."
What am I gonna run out and join the crowds to watch just because its in my area, and cheer if they get em out, or cry if they don't? What can I do there but get in the way?
"120,000 people executed during Sadam's birthday bash... 125,000... the number is now 220,000 dead 17,000 injured..."
Oh... okay. What? What do you want from me? Best I can do is sip this tea in my hand and maybe shake my head in disgust.
"Twelve men are dead, let's not learn nothing from it." Our armies are occupying a country we conquered recently, doing their thing right now... heh... I don't wanna trudge up numbers but what have we learned so far from death tolls in previous wars? It makes for decent television ratings? Humans can still empathise? Meh.
The not having more information thing, is just channels competing isn't it? They're all so eager to be the first with the news, more than half can't be arsed to check their sources. How hard is it for a reporter, representing the eyes and ears of millions of people watching the news... to get his informaion directly from the man in charge of the rescue operation? lol
by Ex Crimson Guard NCO at January 4, 2006 10:23 PM
Well, don't worry, Chris...
What will most learn? That there will be another blatant tragedy in about 3 more months and they will completely forget about the mining tragedy... Only the family members will remember...
...remember that tsunami?... and then the Katrina thing?
Al Sharpton Never Forgets.
by LOCKHHEED at January 4, 2006 11:06 PM
A small point but an important one here locally: It was WEST Virginia not my state of Virginia. We've already mined all our coal. And it was miners that died, not minors.
by anna at January 5, 2006 7:50 AM