Journalism 101

There's no excuse for the stupid and insensitive delay by officials at International Coal Group in getting the tragic truth to miners' family members. Nevertheless, lost in all the hand-wringing is a mea culpa from the media, who based reports of the miners' survival on secondhand accounts and other unconfirmed sources. The incident reminds me of the moment during live coverage of the attempted assassination of President Reagan when a clearly angered and frustrated ABC News anchor Frank Reynolds berated his producers by sharply demanding, "Let's get it NAILED DOWN...somebody...let's find out! Let's get it straight so we can report this thing accurately!" Time to send these folks back to j-school.