News and Information We’d Like You to Know
KPTM-Fox 42 featured Envoy in its lead story about the West Virginia mining tragedy on Wednesday, Jan. 4. Here is the text of the story, which includes remarks by a representative of Envoy’s public relations department.
The first reports of the mining rescue effort said 12 miners had been successfully rescued. But that report proved to be wrong.
For three hours, jubilation reigned as everyone believed the men had miraculously survived more than 40 hours underground. But then came word of an unimaginable mistake. The mine’s president told relatives waiting for happy reunions at a local Baptist church that officials got it wrong. In fact, all but one of the missing men were dead.
The communication failure was reported all around the world. The front page of the Omaha World-Herald was one of hundreds of papers that reported the miners had been saved. The newspaper says the early edition had already gone to print when the miner deaths were made known. Cable news outlets also eagerly broadcast the encourgaging, but incorrect, events.
Some local public relations experts say it could have been prevented.
A representative of Envoy, Inc.’s public relations department said, “What they needed to do was act in a quick manner to address the situation by saying we don’t know what the situation right now is. We need to find out and when we do find out, we’ll let you know. Instead, they let the rumor spread and by the time they were able to address it with the accurate information, it was just a rollercoaster for the families.”
Envoy says the best thing the mine can do is to admit a mistake was made, show regret and make sure all future information is accurate.