The media lied. Miners died.

[Old Texan]

The problem is the media's willingness to run with "unconfirmed" stories. They apparently don't realize that "unconfirmed story" is a fancy term for rumor. Just ask Dan Rather....Some of you are missing the point of this thread, which is to draw parallels to the whole "Bush lied" mantra perpetuated by those in the media. It would take me no time at all to compile facts from credible sources that blow their claims out of the water. Surely they have access to the same facts, yet they choose to ignore them.
In this case, they weren't guilty of ignoring facts. They just didn't have any facts or corroboration to back up their story. In my opinion, this treads dangerously close to a violation of the First Amendment. In this case no harm was done because their erroneous reporting did not affect the outcome or do further harm. But what would happen if the media reported an "unconfirmed" story that a terrorist was running around Manhattan with a nuke in his backpack? It would make yelling "Fire" in a movie theater look like child's play.
Somebody said that this case would make the media take a closer look at their reporting methods and/or standards. I doubt it. Look at the whole scandal with Dan Rather and Mary Mapes over the forged Nat'l Guard documents. These two still maintain to this day that the story was true!!
They got caught redhanded this time by a national audience. They had no time for damage control or denial.
Did they learn anything? Only time will tell, but I too have my doubts. These people have an arrogance beyond belief, Rather and Mapes as mentioned prove it.

[Sleek-Jet]

They got caught redhanded this time by a national audience. They had no time for damage control or denial.
Did they learn anything? Only time will tell, but I too have my doubts. These people have an arrogance beyond belief, Rather and Mapes as mentioned prove it.
This time??? I remember when the Democratic nominee was declared the victor in the 2000 Presidential Election with 1 state having reported it's poll results...
They haven't learned anything in the last 6 years, why would they now. Anything sensational is fair game, truthfull or not.

[HighRoller]

I predict that in the 2008 Presidential election the media will declare Hilary the winner before the polls even open. And even if the opponent wins by 20 points they'll insist she won. They'll demand a recount. The Dems will sue every state that didn't declare her a winner. 2000 and 2004 were just dress rehearsals for Hilary's turn. The Dems are looking for a way to win an election even when they lose. They came close to stealing it in 2000.