Weird Scenes Inside The Coal Mine, by Mike Gold Brainiac On Banjo #165

April 12, 2010 Mike Gold 0 Comments

Last Tuesday, the worst coal mining disaster in over two decades slaughtered 25 people. Maybe 29; as of this writing they still can’t find four guys.

Shortly thereafter – and totally coincidentally – President Obama announced what seemed like the most significant change in America’s nuclear warfare policy since President Truman found The Button. And the self-righteous Right, predictably, went apeshit – even though what Obama implemented was exactly what Saint Ronald the Reagan called for 26 years earlier. Kneejerk, with emphasis on the last syllable.

So, which story did New York City’s CBS station lead with on the 11 PM news?

Yeah, it was a trick question. They led with Tiger Woods’ press conference.

I went to journalism school, and I learned there’s news and then there’s news. Breaking news is paramount, and both the West Virginia story and the Washington story qualified at the moment as lead stories. I also had a career in broadcasting, and I know the “if it bleeds, it leads” rule. So the dead and dying coal miners take the lead.

But no, WCBS-DT covered a press conference that failed to breathe life into a dated and closed story, wherein the subject cannot possibly say anything newsworthy and the reporters cannot possibly provoke ask a newsworthy question because the story had been played out. The only thing left to cover on the Woods affair should have been up to the sports editor, assuming there are sufficient numbers out there who actually believe that golf is more interesting than watching paint dry.

When I heard about the coal mine disaster, my spider-media sense went off and I contacted by buddy Timothy Truman. He grew up near that coal mine, he had a lot of friends who were coal miners, and he’s married to a coal miners’ labor organizer. Tim immediately responded with the information that the disaster happened in a non-union mine that had been cited for millions of dollars in fines for safety violations. He supplied some other, more anatomically breathtaking information as well.

As we quickly learned, the mine owners didn’t even pay the majority of those fines and they had been recently cited for such things as having the exhaust fans installed backwards so methane and coal dust would be blown on to the miners. When it comes to the fines they actually paid, they averaged roughly the cost of one full-time employee’s salary (plus benefits, which is a childish assumption on my part), which is a hell of a savings over making millions and millions of dollars in safety improvements.

Of course, the moonbeam lefties handled this predictably as well. They said coal sucks, which is true, and the mines should be closed, which is stupid. Half of our electricity is generated by coal, and I doubt these clowns would want to sacrifice their $45,000 electric cars to the Cause. Moreover, over 100,000 people (less 25, or 29) support their families as coal miners, and those who work in support of those miners or off of the income generated by coal miners at least triples that number.

The media continues to under-represent this story, and given the way they are covering it, they have largely missed one of the greatest acts of negligent homicide in some time.

Of course things could be different. If, as an act of contrition, Tiger Woods moved to West Virginia and went to work in the mines last Tuesday, the story would have received a lot better coverage.

Media metaphysician and www.ComicMix.com editor-in-Chief Mike Gold performs the weekly two-hour Weird Sounds Inside The Gold Mind ass-kicking bizarro music and blather radio show on The Point,www.getthepointradio.com, every Sunday at 7:00 PM Eastern, replayed the following Thursdays at 10:00 PM Eastern. Likewise, his Weird Scenes Inside The Gold Mind political and cultural rants pop up each and every day at the same venue. Mike will be appearing on a comics history panel at the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo at McCormick Place this Saturday, April 17 at 12:15 PM.