Another Sago Blunder

Reporters on deadline require some idea of what they're going to file ahead of time, but the arrival of inconvenient facts requires more than a throwaway line, especially if it tends to dispute the other 98% of your story.

On Sunday, Joby Warrick wrote Sago Puts Spotlight On Safety Strategy, with the subhed U.S. Mine Agency Issues Citations, But Penalties Are Light. That's the gist. Many quotes from critics of the agency under the Bush Adminstration for not imposing heavier fines. But as John Merline writes at TCS Daily, the national safety record has improved steadily during the Bush years. Anyone out there think that message has gotten through?

Merline:

Mining fatalities have dropped every year President Bush has been in the White House, according to the Mine Safety and Health Administration. Since 2001, mining deaths averaged 63 a year, which is 30% lower than during the Clinton administration. The fatality rate has dropped as well -- it was 31% lower in 2004 than it was in the last year of the Clinton administration.

In fact, it was during the Clinton years that the long-term decline in mining deaths stalled out, only to return to its historic downward trend after he left for private life.

As Merline notes, the Post mentions that in passing--and partly to deflect any credit to Bush. From Warricks' story:

The chief enforcer of federal mining laws, the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration, defends its performance, pointing to a steady decline in the number of deaths and injuries in coal mines in recent years. Some of the decline has been attributed to increased mechanization, though both industry and union officials acknowledge improvements in safety practices.

That's it, folks. Meanwhile we have multiple quotes from critics berating Bush & Co. for imposing fewer fines, and smaller ones at that.

Is this the measure of a liberal mind?--that progress is measured not by lives saved but by how many fines you collect, or how many angry reports you write?

I don't know. And I'm not a mine-safety expert. But I think I would have been better informed if somebody at the Post had asked a few more questions, as Merline did, about this: