A terrible mistake and its aftermath

Editor & Publisher reports on the fallout many newspapers are facing after they reported that the miners trapped underground following an explosion were alive when in fact 12 of them died, the 13th badly injured and fighting for his life.

The Boston Globe got rid of 30,000 copies of its paper with the incorrect information and got the corrected version into 145,000 copies of its final edition.

Editor Martin Baron said the Globe's "coverage was as good as could be expected ... It seemed we handled it just fine all along the way. It's not like people were working with no information." Baron added that "if the paper had held off on the story and it turned out to be true, it would have drawn criticism for waiting too long. `At some point, you've got to print a paper. I don't know what else you can do.'"

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette managed to get out 114,000 copies of its paper with the correct story after executive editor David Shribman made the decision to stop the paper's presses.
"We had run about close to half of our run, but we got the second half and we got it right." (Read the article posted today on Poynter Online.)

(Thanks to Romenesko for pointing to the stories.)

The many erroneous news reports were also discussed on today's "All Things Considered" on NPR.