Chilean Miners

[Gary]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldne ... ds-newsxml

Heres hoping the men can keep their sanity till they can be rescued!!!

[RF]

Why does this news item get practically zero attention worldwide, yet the Deepwater Horizon rig disaster gets worldwide coverage along with vilification of the rigs part owner, British Petroleum?

Why isn't the employer of these miners vilified by US politicians and made subject to Congressional Inquiry?

[Karl Heidenreich]

Anti corporate Obama.

[Kyler]

Why does this news item get practically zero attention worldwide, yet the Deepwater Horizon rig disaster gets worldwide coverage along with vilification of the rigs part owner, British Petroleum?

Why isn't the employer of these miners vilified by US politicians and made subject to Congressional Inquiry?

Since the miners have been found alive, the story has gotten a lot of attention in the US. It lead the nightly news last night and this morning. I think for the lack of US coverage until now is because all the recent US mine disasters have had horrible endings so the US wasn't going to pick up a big negative story. Now that miners are alive its a great story about survival.

Though it is sad that it didn't get more coverage. I had not heard a word about it in the States until they knew anyone was alive.

[RF]

Interesting - US mine disasters are not apparently news in the US, oil rig explosions adjacent to the US are news when a non US owner of the rig is involved. But even then Anadarko Petroleum still doesn't get a mention, or even 25% of the blame. Anadarko is of course a US company, it owns 25% of the Deepwater Horizon rig.

[Gary]

Hi RF

Why does this news item get practically zero attention worldwide

I agree, especially considering the media circus surrounding the woman who was caught on cctv chucking the cat in the bin

[lwd]

Why does this news item get practically zero attention worldwide, ...

There have been pretty much daily articles on it on NPR for the last several days. In relation to the Deep Water rig it did directly impact the lives of a considerably larger number of people and much of the villification was due to PR errors on the part of BP. Of course much of what passes for news, especially on TV, these days is really just sound bites and judged on it's crowd appeal/entertainment level rather than it real news worthy ness. One of the last times I watched the network news on TV they advertised it during the day with a rather sensational teaser that was the last article to be shown for that show. It turned out to be a short video bit that conveyed almost no information and much of what little it did should have been well known.

But back to the minors check out the articles at npr.org the shows that are of interest will most likely be Morning edition or All Things Considered.

[RF]

It might be interesting to note that this disaster is now getting some coverage in the UK, rather late in the day but better than the previous media silence. Lets hope the rescuers get on with it and get these men out alive.

[lwd]

NPR had an article yesterday mentioning they expected one or more of the three rescue shafts to break through today or tomorrow. Still be a while before they get them out but good news in any case.

[RF]

If this was a west European country or the US, the timescale involved in this operation would cause a major outcry and the employer responsible woold be held to account in no uncertain terms, as Tony Hayward would no doubt agree.

[lwd]

Given the difficulties and the dangers I'm not sure that there would be that much a problem with the time scale over here. There would certainly be an investigation however but it sounds like they are going to have one over there as well. In this case the company seems to have played it correctly and not trivialized things. Indeed there seems to have been a great deal of effort and thought put into this rescue. Down to custom made sunglasses (thier eyes have been pretty fully dialated for a long time) and classes on how to handle the publicity and press when they get out.

[lwd]

Heard this AM that they have started bringing them out.

[RF]

Heard this AM that they have started bringing them out.

Good. About time too.

[Karl Heidenreich]

The succesfull rescue of the Chilean miners is one of the great feats of this first decade of the XXI Century. It wasn't one of the hiper high tec societies of Europe or the US that made this accomplishment but a Latin American country, of course one very advanced and under a President that knows what he is doing. However we must think in what is possible and what is not done because of negligence, incompetence or lack of will.
In China, almost certainly, those miners would have left to die. In the US? Russia or Britain?

The honor is Chilean and this feat is a precedent for new ones. Is a victory of the spirit and will more than money and false pride.

[RF]

In Britain mining is almost completely a thing of the past, and its recent safety record is pretty good.