Blog 3, comparing news stories

On April 5th 2010 an explosion occurred outside the small town of Whitesville, WV at the location of Upper Big Branch coal mine, owned by Massey Energy. This is the story I wanted to write about due to the fact that the security chief of Massey Energy, Hughie Elbert Stover, has been charged with obstructing evidence in "the investigation of a 2010 explosion that killed 29 miners" (FOX News). I will be evaluating news broadcasters Fox, Democracy Now, and NPR on how they delivered this story. Each of these stories is within a day of each other FOX and NPR being February 28 and Democracy Now being March 1.

In the case of FOX News presenting the story they start out by giving a brief description on the explosion of Upper Big Branch mine, and the number of fatalities to give the readers a refresh on the background of the story. They then begin to go into the charges Stover faces as well as his possible jail sentence. The story then proceeds into the statements on the indictment against Stover and Massey Energy saying that they, "regularly violated federal law by warning underground workers when governments officials arrived to conduct safety inspections at its mines...Stover and trained security guards g [ave] advance notice by announcing the presence of an MSHA inspector. Stover is also accused of ordering an unnamed person to dump documents dealing with security at Upper Big Branch in a trash compactor." A family member of one of the victims of this explosion, Clay Mullins, was also quoted in the story saying that he "expected it because that's just he way they run their operations." Mullins later stated that he sympathized with Stover's family but justice is needed. The article then gives notice to the reader about the Assistant Attorney General Lanney Breuer comments on the incident and that the U.S. Attorney's office has recovered the disposed documents.

Democracy Now's article is quite short simple, and to the point. They indicate a brief background of the explosion as well as Stover's charges of, "lying to a[n] FBI agent and a federal inspector, as well as ordering an employee to dispose of thousands of security documents". They go on to inform the reader about the length of the sentence Stover faces for lying and obstructing justice.

NPR begins the story similarly to that of FOX, but give the background of the mine disaster through out the story. NPR is not quick to jump the gun in telling the reader the charges Stover faces, and NPR does tell the reader information that neither FOX or Democracy Now informed us of. This being that, "Stover and his guards used a special radio frequency to warn miners underground when inspectors arrived at the mine. That gave miners the chance to mask or fix serious safety problems and avoid citations, fines and closure orders...Massey miners and federal mine inspectors have described this inspection dodge before." The article states the charges and description of the crime committed by Stover when he disposed of the security documents. NPR does tell the reader that Gov. Joe Manchin appointed an independent investigator, Davitt McAteer to the cause of the disaster, who currently resides and works in Shepherdstown. The article discusses the recovery of the disposed documents and ends with Stover's release on bail.

While all three networks delivered the basics of the story giving the reader the ability to obtain the knowledge they were looking for, all three networks delivered differently, and similarly. FOX delivered more statistical information in regards to previous mine disasters, Stover's roll in the case, and focused on dates of importance in the case investigation. FOX also seemed more assertive when delivering this story, stressing words like "lying" and repeating Stover's charges through out the story, thus showing FOX's opinion of Stover. Democracy Now released a much shorter and to the point version of the story. While this is a convenient and clear method for readers that desire a quick update of the goings on in the world; I feel that they could have been more thorough with details such as Stover's inspection policy and the recovery of the disposed documents. NPR, on the other hand, was more extensive with their research indicating independent investigators, and Stover's special code to tell workers to mask any noticeable damage that could result in fines or a shut down of the mine. NPR did deliver a more in depth story than the other two resources, and like FOX, their opinion of Stover showed between the lines of the article. This resource was also the only one that displayed an image of the mine during the sequence of events in April 2010.

Image by Bob Bird NPR


This story is a subject I feel strongly about and can relate with this being the reason behind my choice. All three stories delivered the information well and to the point, which is what all readers look for in a good news story.