Broken News

By now I'm sure you've heard this story.

The more important matter, of course, is the story itself — the loss of 12 lives and the suffering of 12 families. But I thought I'd share a glimpse of the story behind the story, and how it unfolded in the newsroom where I work.

Deadlines at our paper were already a bit screwy last night due to the triple overtime Orange Bowl, but in addition to scrambling to get reports of that game into our later editions, the copy desk also had to work fast to cover the breaking news from West Virginia.

"'They're alive'; 12 of 13 miners survive ordeal" reads the headline on our lead story on the front page. "Relieved families celebrate 'miracle' after men spent 41 hours underground," was the reader. Below that was a picture of family members rejoicing over the good news.

The paper's last lift — the last chance to get breaking news into the next day's edition — is at 2:30 a.m. That deadline came and went and the last of our papers were printed.

A 2:57 a.m., as trucks were heading across the region with copies of today's paper, a news alert came across the AP wire: "Families say 11 of 12 miners reported to have survived have died." About 3 a.m., our press room was told to stop the presses on USA Today, but it was too late. The presses had already stopped and those papers, too, were bundled and on their way to newstands and paper carriers.

By 3:30, a full rewrite had appeared on the wire and I was able to post the online-only story above while watching the surreal press conferences on MSNBC. The families of the doomed miners had been led to believe — somehow — that their loved ones were alive. And for three hours, this seemed to be what everyone believed. Those three hours included the deadlines for just about every newspaper on the East Coast, so we all found ourselves in a similar situation. (Even the astute Eric Umansky fell into this three-hour gap in his Today's Papers column in Slate.)

The grief of the families is more important than the embarrassment of the newspapers, of course, but today is not the proudest day for newspaper journalism. You can survey the various front pages at the Newseum. Most of the West Coast papers were able to print the correct story (although many, inexplicably, did not), but those with EST deadlines nearly all got it wrong.

"Miners Alive" reads The Miami Herald. "'They're Alive'" says the St. Petersburg Times, and the Chicago Sun-Times. 12 Miners Found Alive 41 Hours After Explosion" says The New York Times. The Daily News just reads "ALIVE!," with an overline attributing the rescue to divine intervention, "MIRACLE IN WEST VIRGINIA."

The Boston Globe has a more responsible headline — the one every East Coast paper should have run: "12 miners reportedly found alive."