Some of Jan. 4 U.S. newspapers with incorrect information about trapped miners　on front pages.

That was just one of the newspaper headlines that landed on doorsteps Jan. 4. Screaming, joyful, dramatic -- and of course, wrong.

As the painful truth emerged that all but one of the trapped West Virginia miners was dead, news organizations were forced to ask themselves: Had they gone too far, too fast in reporting the original, much happier ending?

Undoubtedly, the timing was bad and the circumstances challenging. It was just before midnight Eastern time when news, or what seemed to be news, came from family members that the remaining 12 miners had been found alive. (One body had been found earlier.) The governor appeared to confirm it, saying: "They told us they have 12 alive."

Martin Bashir, in signing off ABC's Nightline, suggested that viewers watch more on Good Morning America about what he dubbed "the mining miracle."

On cable news channels, late-night viewers saw euphoria erupt in the black West Virginia night. Family members whooped. Anchors such as Anderson Cooper and Geraldo Rivera were swept up in the joyful scene. Newspapers across the country rushed to update their front pages.

Three hours later came the terrible truth: Only one man had survived. It was 3 a.m., too late for many papers to change their initial front pages.

Not since premature reports of George W. Bush's election victory in 2000 had so many papers announced the wrong news. The reversal also called to mind the Munich Olympics story in 1972, when the Israeli hostages were initially reported safe, when in fact all had been killed.

The Japan Times Weekly: Jan. 14, 2006
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