Your Stupid MSM at Work: The Headline That Has to be Seen to Be Believed

PittsburghAfterDark

PittsburghAfterDark

CAGiversary!
I have to ask a very honest question. Just how stupid are these people? Is this headline really the work of our nation's best and brightest minds in the reporting field? Is this what passes off as brilliant deduction by the NYT editors and publishers? These people supposedly know what's relevant, newsbreaking and view themselves as some kind of "educators" to the rest of us.

So, here we go with the most idiotic news headline I have EVER seen in the New York Times.

U.S. Growth May Hinge on Businesses

By LOUIS UCHITELLE
Published: December 30, 2005

The housing market is gradually fading as a prop for the economy, eroding a source of increased wealth that allowed consumers to borrow and spend avidly in recent years.
Link: Excerpted. Only relevant thing to this post was the headline.

So folks, there you have it. The economy's health may depend on how businesses do and perform. Don't say you didn't learn anything today.
 
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C'mon, PAD, does anything you see in the NYT suprise you?

The editors at the NYT probably just learned this amazing fact themselves and felt the need to educate everyone in america how the economy works.
 
[quote name='bmulligan']C'mon, PAD, does anything you see in the NYT suprise you?

The editors at the NYT probably just learned this amazing fact themselves and felt the need to educate everyone in america how the economy works.[/QUOTE]

It's part one in a series. Tomorrow: Supply and demand!
 
Actually, I think part 2 will be 'Why we're all completely fucked'. That'll be followed by the NYT closing their doors as their owners outsource the newspaper to China.
 
When I think "Headlines," I tend to think of Jay Leno, so pardon me if my pavlovian response to Jay Leno kicks in, and I begin retching all over creation.

I'm glad to see that you kept the first sentence of the article in there, as it points out precisely at the fact that the recent housing boom, one that was unarguably an investors' boom, was a source of economic growth that, as soon as that bubble bursts, we'll have to hope that job growth and productivity pick up that slack. I'm certain that I'm telling you nothing you don't already know, but, boy-o-boy, grasping at straws to mock the ol' NYT, aren't we?

I suppose it speaks volumes that the best you can do to vilify this paper is play Jay Leno and bray "Jayson Blair" like some kind of jackass, as opposed to identifying blending of editorializing with the news articles, blurring the line between fact-stating and ideology-trumpeting. I understand that you're jealous, and merely wish you had a Bill O'Reilly, a consistent source of hypocrisy and out-and-out lies (the latest being that Mr. "Falafel" himself wants to do this to two NYT reporters). I've always wondered why nobody ever became an ambiguous left-wing wacko character. For instance, I never figured out if Wally George was for real, because he was so extreme and such a fucking nut (his talk show led me to believe he was a joke, that he was never out of character led me to believe that he was sincere). Why has nobody decided to live the life of a wacko hypocrite liberal, similar to George? It seems logical enough.
 
While I'm one to blast the MSM for laziness, I don't see anything wrong with the headline. The housing market pulled us through the last recession, and with that gone, it's up to business growth to support the economy now.
 
[quote name='Drocket']Actually, I think part 2 will be 'Why we're all completely fucked'. That'll be followed by the NYT closing their doors as their owners outsource the newspaper to China.[/QUOTE]

Even then a million illiterate Chinese working on a million typewriters would produce more accurate coverage of the world than the current writers and editorial staff.

It would be a huge improvement in coverage and far more objective.
 
I've always wondered about folks like PAD. Who seemingly hold our press to a higher standard than the president and his administration. While on it's face, the headline is off. The fact of the matter is in context "business" is one part of the ecomonic equation. Hardly on a sin. (Yeah I know, it part of the job as a conservative postet to highlight NYT follies)

Yet on the same day, we have an announcement from the Dept. of Homeland Security that grants will now be based on risk. Which, IMO, falls much more readily into the "No shit sherlock" column.
 
January 4, 2006
12 Miners Found Alive 41 Hours After Explosion

By JAMES DAO
SAGO, W.Va., Wednesday, Jan. 4 - Forty-one hours after an explosion trapped 13 men in a West Virginia coal mine here, family members and a state official said 12 of the miners had been found alive Tuesday night.

Earlier Tuesday evening, the body of one miner was found 11,200 feet from the mine entrance, within a few hundred feet of a vehicle used to transport the workers deep into the mine, company officials said. The miner was not identified, and the cause of his death was unclear.

Joe Thornton, deputy secretary for the West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety, said the rescued miners were being examined at the mine shortly before midnight and would soon be taken to nearby hospitals. Mr. Thornton said he did not know details of their medical condition.

Outside the Sago Baptist Church, where people had gathered across the street from the mine, family and friends of the miners hugged each other and shed tears of joy as they learned the news.

"It's a miracle," said Loretta Ables, who said her fiancé, Fred Ware, was among the survivors. "Everyone was telling us they were probably dead."

Earlier in the ordeal, air readings from a hole drilled 260 feet into the mine had revealed extremely high levels of toxic carbon monoxide, a likely byproduct of the explosion, mine company officials said.

After the one miner's body was found alone, Bennett K. Hatfield, the chief executive officer of International Coal Group, the mine's owner, said he considered it a hopeful sign that the other miners had abandoned the vehicle and found a safe pocket of air.

Terry Goff, a friend of one of the miners, said he learned that the miners were alive when the bell at the Baptist church began ringing just before midnight.

"People were rushing out, yelling, 'There's 12 alive!' " Mr. Goff said.

"When they found the body and said the carbon monoxide levels were high, I doubted my faith," he said, "but now we've got 12 men walking off that hill."

Throughout the day, trained rescue teams equipped with oxygen canisters had rotated through the mine, meticulously repairing the damaged ventilation system and combing through the mazelike corridors for the men.

Emotions seesawed throughout the day with each new piece of information. In the morning, hopes had run high that the miners, most of them highly experienced workers in their 40's and 50's, had barricaded themselves in a corridor with breathable air to wait for a rescue party.

By late afternoon, mine company officials said that with only a few thousand feet of mine left to search, the chances of the miners being alive seemed remote. But late in the evening, officials said the fact that 12 miners had apparently not been killed by the force of the explosion renewed hopes that they were alive.

Nick Helms, who waited all day for news of his father, Terry, said his father, a strapping 50-year-old, had endured numerous injuries in a 30-year career and hated mining because of the dangers, but refused to quit because the job put food on the table.

"He gave his life in there so I could go to the movies," Mr. Helms, 25, said of his father. Switching to the present tense, Mr. Helms added, "He is very selfless."

The explosion, which occurred at about 6:30 Monday morning in an unused part of the mine that had been sealed just last month, shook homes and woke people nearby. But it did not cause extensive damage inside the mine, company officials said.

Some concrete walls used to direct airflow had been knocked down by the force of the blast, but there were no cave-ins or piles of rubble from the explosion, officials said.

The real danger to the miners, officials said, would have come from the persistent high levels of carbon monoxide inside the mine.

A colorless, odorless gas, carbon monoxide impedes the body's ability to carry oxygen to vital organs. It can cause flulike symptoms like headaches and nausea, and in high enough quantities, it can kill a person in 15 minutes. Of particular danger to trapped miners, it can also cause confusion.

By Tuesday evening, monitors showed carbon dioxide readings of more than 300 parts per million in some sections of the mine, more than 10 times the amount considered safe, company officials said.

"The CO2 was the worst thing they could find," said Bruce E. Dial of Pineville, N.C., who worked as a federal mine safety official for more than 20 years.

Miners, after underground explosions or fires, are trained to find pockets of breathable air using special monitors, then barricade themselves in using a plastic-coated fabric known as brattice cloth.

Lewis Wade, a mine safety expert and senior science adviser for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, said a well-sealed corridor could keep a miner alive for hours. "Explosions are devastating things," Mr. Wade said, "but miners are smart and resilient people."

Federal inspectors fined the Sago mine more than $24,000 for roughly 202 violations in 2005, according to federal records.

The total monetary figure is likely to rise substantially because the federal mine-safety agency has yet to put a dollar figure on some citations.

The most serious of these citations are 16 "unwarrantable failure orders," which are problems that an operator knows exist but fails to correct.

Thirteen of these orders were issued in the past six months, federal records show.

"Under the Bush administration, the citing of unwarrantable failures has gone down dramatically," said Tony Oppegard, a top federal mine official in the Clinton administration and a former prosecutor of mine-safety violations in Kentucky. "So to see a rash of unwarrantable failures under this administration is a telling sign of a mine with serious safety problems."

Inspectors found dangerous accumulations of coal dust, which can be explosive. Other citations dealt with ventilation and firefighting equipment violations.

Since June, the mine has experienced 15 roof falls or wall collapses, with three causing injuries to miners, according to federal records. That is an unusually high number, Mr. Oppegard said, "and it's indicative of roof-control problems."

Asked about the violations on Tuesday, Mr. Hatfield said the mine's "bad history" had occurred before his company took it over last year, adding that dramatic improvements had been made since then.

The anxiety of the day was heightened by what seemed to be painfully slow progress by the rescue teams, which took the entire day to move 2,000 feet.

But, experts said, the teams had to proceed cautiously, frequently testing the air and repairing the ventilation system, because of an array of dangers. A weakened roof could have caved in, for instance, or trapped methane could have triggered a second explosion.

Dennis O'Dell, administrator of health and safety for the United Mine Workers of America, who was assisting in the search, said hasty rescue efforts had at times led to additional deaths. At the Blue Creek No. 5 Mine in Alabama in 2001, 10 men attempting to rescue trapped miners were killed in a second explosion.

"I know it's tough on families because every minute seems like an hour," Mr. O'Dell said. "It's just something you have to do. Everybody has done as good a job here as I have seen."

In one setback, a robot owned by the federal government became mired in mud inside the mine on Tuesday and was rendered unusable. Officials had hoped that the robot, equipped with lights, an air testing device and a video camera, would reach the trapped miners faster than human teams could.

The cause of the blast remained a mystery. Company officials said that the mine did not have a history of methane gas problems and that air testing conducted before the explosion found no evidence of methane, a highly combustible gas.

The apparent lack of methane led some mining experts to speculate that coal dust, which is highly combustible, caused the explosion. A spark from electrical equipment could ignite coal dust, they said.

Mr. Hatfield said the likelihood of a coal dust explosion seemed low because no work had been done in the mine over the weekend.

The trapped team was the first to enter the mine after the holiday layoff but had not begun work when the explosion occurred, he said. As a result, there would have been little or no coal dust in the air, he said.

Lightning was another possible cause. The explosion happened during a violent thunderstorm, and Mr. O'Dell said there had been incidents in which metal pipes extruding from underground mines had conducted lightning bolts. The bolts then ignited pockets of methane gas, he said.

Brenda Goodman contributed reporting from Atlanta for this article, and Gardiner Harris from Washington.
Link: New York Times, Where Else

Of course only one survived and is in critical care but hey, it's only 180 degrees wrong. Just like the majority of their coverage. Perhaps the ghost of Jayson Blair is alive and well!? Perhaps the Times should send people to oh, I don't know, West Virginia where the story happened instead of having them sit on their asses in Atlanta and Washington.

These people have credibility why???

By JENNIFER C. YATES
Associated Press Writer

TALLMANSVILLE, W.Va.

In a stunning and heartbreaking reversal, family members were told early Wednesday that 12 of 13 trapped coal miners found were dead _ three hours after they began celebrating news that they were alive.

The devastating new information shocked and angered family members, who had rejoiced with Gov. Joe Manchin hours earlier when a rumor began to spread that 12 miners were alive. Rescue crews found the first victim earlier Tuesday evening.

"They knew the odds that were against us, and with that, to have the ending as it did with this high euphoria, I can only say there was no one who did anything intentionally other than risk their lives to save their loved ones," Manchin told ABC's "Good Morning America."

The sole survivor of the disaster, identified by mining officials as 27-year-old Randal McCloy, was hospitalized in critical condition early Wednesday, a doctor said. When he arrived, he was unconscious but moaning, the hospital said.

Charles Green, McCloy's father-in-law, told ABC that McCloy was suffering from hypothermia and was on a ventilator, but didn't suffer any broken bones. There was no carbon monoxide in his body, he said, despite concerns about high levels of carbon monoxide inside the mine.

When he found out his son-in law was the only survivor, "I was still devastated," he said. "My whole family's heart goes out to them other families."

Thirteen miners had been trapped 260 feet below the surface of the Sago Mine since an explosion early Monday. The mine is located about 100 miles northeast of Charleston. As rescue workers tried to get to the men, families waited at the Sago Baptist Church during an emotional two-day vigil.

But late Tuesday night, families began streaming out of the church, yelling "They're alive!" The church's bells began ringing and families embraced, as politicians proclaimed word of the apparent rescue a miracle.

As an ambulance drove away from the mine carrying what families believed was the first survivor, they applauded, not yet knowing there were no others.

Though the governor announced that there were 12 survivors, he later indicated he was uncertain about the news. As word buzzed through the church of survivors, he tried to find out what was going on, he said.

"All of a sudden we heard the families in a euphoric state, and all the shouting and screaming and joyfulness, and I asked my detachments, I said, 'Do you know what's happening?' Because we were wired in and we didn't know," Manchin said.

International Coal Group Chief Executive Officer Ben Hatfield blamed the wrong information on a "miscommunication." The news spread after people overheard cell phone calls, he said. In reality, rescuers had only confirmed finding 12 miners and were checking their vital signs. At least two family members in the church said they received cell phone calls from a mine foreman.

"That information spread like wildfire, because it had come from the command center," he said.

Three hours later, Hatfield told the families that "there had been a lack of communication, that what we were told was wrong and that only one survived," said John Groves, whose brother Jerry Groves was one of the trapped miners.

"There was no apology. There was no nothing. It was immediately out the door," said Nick Helms, son of miner Terry Helms.

Chaos broke out in the church and a fight started. About a dozen state troopers and a SWAT team were positioned along the road near the church because police were concerned about violence. Witnesses said one man had to be wrestled to the ground when he lunged for mining officials.

Company officials waited to correct the information until they knew more about the rescue, Hatfield said.

"Let's put this in perspective. Who do I tell not to celebrate? I didn't know if there were 12 or one (who were alive)," Hatfield said.

The explosion was the state's deadliest mining accident since November when 78 men _ including the uncle of Manchin _ died in an explosion at Consol's Farmington No. 9 mine in Marion County, an hour's drive north of here. Nineteen bodies remain entombed in the mountain. It was that disaster that prompted Congress to pass the Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969.

It was also the worst nationwide since a pair of explosions tore through the Jim Walter Resources No. 5 mine in Brookwood, Ala. on Sept. 23, 2001, killing 13.

Federal Department of Labor officials promised an investigation. Acting Assistant Secretary David Dye, who heads the Mine Safety and Health Administration, said it will include "how emergency information was relayed about the trapped miners' conditions."

The 12 miners were found together behind a barrier they had constructed to block carbon monoxide gas. They were found near where the company had drilled an air hole early Tuesday in an attempt to contact the men.

The miners had stretched a piece of fabric across an area about 20 feet wide to block out the gas, Hatfield said. The fabric is designed for miners to use as a barrier. Each miner had carried a breathing apparatus and had been able to use it, according to mining officials.

The hole also was used to check air quality in the mine, which revealed high concentrations of carbon monoxide. The odorless, colorless gas can be lethal at high doses. At lower levels, it can cause headaches, dizziness, disorientation, nausea, fatigue and brain damage.

Manchin, who had earlier said that the state believed in miracles, tried to focus on the news that one had survived.

"We're clinging to one miracle when we were hoping for 13," he said.

___

Associated Press writers Vicki Smith, Allen G. Breed and Mark Williams in Tallmansville contributed to this report.
Link
 
I agree with PAD - the MSM really has become lazy. They focus on making a quick buck instead of reporting the truth.
 
[quote name='PittsburghAfterDark']

Of course only one survived and is in critical care but hey, it's only 180 degrees wrong. Just like the majority of their coverage. Perhaps the ghost of Jayson Blair is alive and well!? Perhaps the Times should send people to oh, I don't know, West Virginia where the story happened instead of having them sit on their asses in Atlanta and Washington.

These people have credibility why???

[/QUOTE]

hey numbnuts, plenty of people in West Virgina initially thought they were alive.

By the way, this is a stupid example. Officials, including the gov., said they were alive. It was a screw-up
 
It appears to be that this debate is going to go the direction of arguing for accuracy versus timeliness. The 24/7 news revolution of the early 80's, and the internet in the 90's both completely changed how news gets across.

Early this morning, CNN reported that 12 were alive (I thought it was 13 of 14, but I digress); I leave CNN on for my dog, and I remember walking out this morning thinking "that's certainly good news." Regrettably, it was wrong. While there should be a certain standard to hold 'round the clock' news sources to (i.e., I don't much care for exit polling done before noon on election days; hell, even after noon, for that matter), what we're seeing in the miners' story is where the fine line between accuracy (which is not the same thing as truth) and timeliness coincide. To argue that news is beholden to the former, when they compete with each other based on the latter, is to deny them their (unfortunate, IMO) status as a profit-oriented business (which reminds me; many of you should read Pierre Bourdieu's brief "On Television," as I think many of you will appreciate how he weaves the conflict of interest and the profit motive as being destructive of what is truly "newsworthy").

Thanks for the newsbusters link, I'll try to check that out later today.
 
FYI, newsbusters is the spawn of the "Media Research Center". Who regularly place Letterman's Top Ten lists in their Cyberblast: Exposing Media Bias and who have some pretty asinine "studies" proving media bias.
 
I know who the MRC are; I can't justify giving David Brock credibility and not L. Brent Bozell III. Not until I check out his site (which is down, BTW).
 
I think MRC and MM are simply competing "gotcha" websites which actually both serve the purpose.

It has been my belief that the conservatives goal has never been to create their own media. It has been to discredit all media. Which is why Fox's bias never bothered me, the fact that they are just amaturish and unprofessional does.
 
Well, after briefly looking at newsbusters, I think that there is an emphasis on people who I certainly would consider "media" (David Letterman, Katie Couric), although one could easily argue that they are, in fact, part of the media.

What bothers me, and something I'll have to go back to MM and compare (b/c I may be blind to it on mediamatters) is the writing style on newsbusters. It seems very childish and pedantic, not to mention presumptuous (i.e., it mentions how Dan Rather was "fawning all over" Bill Clinton during a recent interview). If anything, that detracts from the legitimacy of the gripes they may have. As I said, though, perhaps I need to go back and look at some mediamatters points to see if the writing style is the same; I'd hate to find out that MM is equally childish.
 
[quote name='PittsburghAfterDark']So now what are you doing, trying to prove that I hacked the NYT website in order to discredit them before an audience of 6?[/QUOTE]

no, genius, just showing that they posted a correct story when they got the correct info. Sometimes old info stays on the net for a while.

Hell, my local right-leaning paper has a morning headline of "They're Alive" in reference to the miners . Doesn't prove anything except they are a victim of bad info and timing.
 
Reminds me of all the really accurate reporting of rumors during Katrina.

Though this was far more egregous in it's abject failure of accurate reporting. You were dealing with one story, one issue, one set of facts. The media still got it 180 degrees wrong.
 
Remember when Reagan was shot? When information is coming fast , the default position is to report everything.

FYI, by all accounts there was more than one set of facts.
 
Of course only one survived and is in critical care but hey, it's only 180 degrees wrong. Just like the majority of their coverage. Perhaps the ghost of Jayson Blair is alive and well!? Perhaps the Times should send people to oh, I don't know, West Virginia where the story happened instead of having them sit on their asses in Atlanta and Washington.

These people have credibility why???
Click to expand...

Credibility? You need to blast fox as well. I was watching them last night and they started talking to geraldo. He was as crazy/hyper etc. as normal then tells them he heard from the people gathered that 12 of the miners are alive, so fox put the headline on the screen "new flash: 12 miners found alive". They then were interviewing all these people who, when asked things like how long till they see their relative replied "I was told in about an hour".

The supposed savior from the liberal media accepts as gospel what their former talk show host reporter heard from people in a crowd. How is that any better?

I also got to listen to fox describe how these people probably survived, another milestone in reporting excellence.

Also, another victory for the conservative media came in this morning paper where you can find articles such as this one from the new york post:

41181574papersapstory2036mo.jpg
 
They all got it wrong. The entire MSM. Every single "major" news outlet and countless local stations with reporters on the scene all got it wrong.

I'm not singling out the New York Times (Though they still haven't removed the original faulty article.) but the media as a whole.

It's the same inaccurate reporting trend that started with Iraq, grew with Katrina and now this one. It's not hard to double source or triple source information when all the players in the story are, you know, in one church.

Yes and I remember vividly the day Reagan was shot and all three, hard to believe that's all there was, networks declared Jim Brady was dead. I realize fluid news is often hard to nail down however in this case it's beyond idiotic. After the Orange Bowl the ABC affiliate here was breathless in its reporting of the "miracle" despite no official word having come from the governor's office of West Virginia.

Did it matter that there was no official word? Nope.

Again in the words of Lionel Hutz, "We have lots hearsay and conjecture. Those are kinds of evidence.".
 
[quote name='mykevermin']I leave CNN on for my dog[/QUOTE]
You are raising that dog to be a pinko commie liberal. Make him watch Fox News or can he stand that much barking? :lol:

Is anyone else amused that PAD is complaining about the NYT's slow retraction when he has yet to issue one?
 
I'm flattered you think of me as a viable, credible media source that needs to cite errors (Even when there were none.) for my readers.

I didn't realize you held me in such high regard MBE.
 
I'm just saying if you're going to lambast the NYT for not correcting themselves in a timely manner for an honest mistake, you could take the time to correct the information you posted that was a GOP attempt to distort the reality that Carter and Clinton didn't authorize warrantless wiretaps on US citizens.
 
[quote name='PittsburghAfterDark']Go investigate the timelines, history and bringdown of Aldrich Ames and get back to me.[/QUOTE]
Sometimes you make it too easy
Clinton authorized a physical search of Ames' house. Physical searches were not covered by FISA then. Later, with Clinton's support, Congress amended FISA to cover physical searches as well.

Bush violated FISA. Clinton did not.
 
So a warrantless physical search is okay, a warrantless elctronic intercept is not.

Glad to know you draw distinctions on which kind of supposed civil rights violations are more serious. Democratic President, hell, that's okay. Republican President impeach him.

Your predictibility is easy to measure and count on. Before you throw out Media Matters left wing BS at me why not just back up your claims with experts from democraticunderground.com. Their mission statements, behavior and leanings are identical.
 
I know you can read. The warrantless physical search did not violate FISA. FISA has since been amended to cover physical searches. Clinton did not violate FISA. Dubya did and has admitted such.

And to make it even simpler for you, if you can prove Clinton violated FISA, do it. Impeach him again. He'll deserve it. And so will Bush.

A Clinton violation of the law does not excuse a Bush one.
 
Who was arguing this in the framework of FISA?

I wasn't.

Admit you only care about this as a political issue and not a national security issue and you'll have some credibility.
 
If you don't want to couch this in FISA terms, then what law did Clinton violate?

I care about this as a civil liberties issue. As far as I'm concerned, FISA courts are a rubber stamp, and Bush couldn't even be bothered to follow that lenient of a law.
 
Why your precious 4th Ammendment. Which now applies to spies, terrorists, enemy combatants in your mind.

I think you should lobby Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to put together an Al Qaeda and Terrorist Bill of Rights. We're clearly giving our enemy an undue hard time in their planning to kill us.
 
Back on topic....

america_s_anchorman.Par.0012.ImageFile.jpg


Take your pick on which media outlet to slam for not getting the facts straight. You can include every single television news outlet in the country on top of their print bretheren.
 
[quote name='PittsburghAfterDark']Why your precious 4th Ammendment. Which now applies to spies, terrorists, enemy combatants in your mind.[/QUOTE]
So that's your best defense? Clinton did it too?
 
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