As expected, the mine explosion in West Virginia that kllled 25 and has left four missing was the major Page One news Tuesday in both Charleston, W.V., newspapers.
As can happen in these disasters, great caution is needed to report the number of dead and missing and alive. Past mine disasters, such as the 2006 Sago Mine in the same state, have left some news outlets apologizing for getting such sensitive information wrong. In that incident, some news outlets wrongly reported many miners had survived when they were later found dead.
Both Charleston papers today also went big on the story on their Web sites, which were running slow or not logging on at all due to the traffic.