No Runny Eggs

Dennis York started it, the Spice Boys picked it up, and Jib continued it, so I may as well jump on the turd picture bandwagon before the rest of my fellow bartenders do.

Warning – the following image should not be viewed by those under 13 unless accompanied by an adult, those with weak stomachs, Packer fans still distraught over 4-12, or those with no sense of humor.

Image courtesy Packers.com

Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

The newest additions –

Right off the Shore – Jenna’s one brave woman; not only is she in Madistan, but she goes to Karl Marx Univers…er, University of Wisconsin.
Reardon Report – Seems Mark Reardon got on the blogging kick, and he’s more of a quick-hitter than…
Wagner on the Web -…Jeff Wagner, who does opuses when he updates.

And no, I’m not going to put the blogroll in any sort of order anytime soon. I like the randomness.

The initial news that there were 12 survivors proved to be woefully and tragically wrong, with only 1 survivor rescued and 11 bodies recovered. Before the questions, the events of last night/this morning as they unfolded (at least the best I can reconstruct them because I was asleep; a HUGE hat-tip to Free Republic) –

• Just short of midnight EST – someone overheard a communication between the search party and the command post, apparently misunderstands either “all found” or “all found, at least one alive” (exact wording unknown) to mean “all found alive”, word spreads to families gathered at a church from what appears to be an unofficial source, they start celebrating.
• 11:59 pm EST – AP reports that the families were saying that the 12 miners were found alive, notes that neither the company that owns the mine nor the governor’s office was confirming this.
• Midnight EST – Everybody starts reporting that they were alive, not bothering to note that it was unconfirmed at that point.
• Roughly 12:20 am EST – word gets to the command post that there were not 12 survivors (what is unknown is the exact wording used).
• 12:40 am EST – Reuters carries a dispatch saying all 12 are alive, no disclaimer that this was still unconfirmed by any official. This story says that the word was spread to the families by a man who burst into the church saying, “It’s a miracle, it’s a miracle.”
• 1:12 am EST – AP carries an updated dispatch (no longer in the AP archives) quoting Governor Joe Manchin as saying, “They told us they have 12 alive.” The “they” is left unidentified, and the story notes that the company still was not confirming this. Side note; this appears to be the dispatch which Editor and Publisher uses to blast the AP in their larger blast of the media as a whole.
• 1:15 am EST – The first (and as it turns out, only) ambulance leaves the mine site with a survivor.
• 2:09 am EST – CNN reports that survivor was in critical condition.
• 2:45 am EST – The company’s CEO told the families in the church that there was only one survivor. Media goes into full self-righteous indignation mode, ignoring that they had run with the story for better than an hour with absolutely, positively zero confirmation.

Well, I have a few questions:

1. Where did “all found alive” first come about?
2. Who was the one that burst into the church with the false good news?
3. Why did the press run with this story for better than an hour without any confirmation, with many outlets not disclosing that there was not any confirmation? Do note that I give the AP itself a pass – their stories up through the wrong confirmation from the governor sourced this to the families and noted that it was unconfirmed, and their story quoting the governor also noted that the company had not confirmed the news.
4. Who told the governor that all 12 were alive with enough authority that he believed it?
5. When were the 11 that died declared dead?