Whore-aldo...
Re: the gratuitous use of footage, taken in the wake of the would-be rescue of 13 trapped miners in West Virginia, and Fox News: was it really necessary to show that footage (by my count) seven times in two-plus hours?

As to who is responsible for the false rumors and slipshod reporting, we could yack all day about how we live in a 24-hour news cycle, the instantaneous-ness (if that's a word) of modern communications (and their subsequent contributions to spreading disinformation), the need for politicians to grandstand, etc. My beef was that we had a community that was suffering, it was cruelly (if unintentionally) given false information that reinforced their most fervent hopes, and then had the inevitible crash "reported" live for the entire world to see.

I really hadn't given a hoot in hell for trapped miners; after all, mining is a dangerous job and those who engage in it do so in the full knowledge that accidents happen, very often with catastrophic results.

I do give a great deal of credit to the belief that reporters, in their zeal to catch a story or in the name of presenting us with "entertainment", do go way too far when instead of doing the right thing (i.e. keeping the grief and the devestation private, as a personal matter for those affected, giving them dignity in their time of grief) opt to turn such a tragedy into drama in the name of ratings and news.

Which is why Geraldo Rivera, and Fox News, should be ashamed of theirselves. I have no expectation that such is the case, but this incident rubbed me the wrong way. Those people needed privacy and respect. What they got was exploitation of their tragedy.

Another thing that bothers me about the whole miner affair is the way in which media that DON'T have a need for immediacy (i.e. newspapers) managed to continue to spread disinformation even after the original information (all miners found safe) was disproven. I find that inexcusable.

Still, what's even more difficult to explain and excuse is how it is that Americans have become a nation of rubberneckers, all of us totally riveted by the train wreck in progress, salivating over the minutest detail or morsel of speculation from "reporters" and "experts". We all need to get lives, apparently.

As for the miners and thier loved ones, I offer condolences (such as they are) and the hope that you all find some peace, somehow. May God be with you.