I opine

It is unfortunate what happened in West Virginia. I heard plenty of coverage on NPR which got me thinking. Sure there were mistakes made and the mining company should be held accountable but... In my opinion it was irresponsible for the officials on hand to have not said something the minute they realized there was some confusion about the report of survivors, that said we don't yet know to what degree the confusion existed, and some leeway should be granted to them to take a moment to verify the second report that their initial information was incorrect. This is the mistake they made, in that they did not absolutely confirm the first report of survivors. The same burden should be put to the media, one of the fundamental tenants of reporting is to confirm information before releasing that information for public consumption. Then it was reported that some of the victims families were so enraged at the company officials that the officials were assaulted. Then the families had the nerve to say the officials didn't apologize, how could they under such circumstance. Sorry folks you can't have it both ways. Oh, the families were under incredible stress and acted irrationally during a very trying moment? I would like to think it was the same for the officials...