Horribly inconsistent reporting on offshore La oil rig explosion

At times during the three day coverage of the Deepwater Horizon explosion, one had to wonder if the various news outlets were reporting on the same event.

While Fox News was reporting that the rig was only slightly listed and appeared to have stabilized, another story released at the same time announced that the list was 70 degrees and the Transocean Ltd. platform was on the verge of collapse.


Different news accounts had the number of critically injured at four, seven, and seventeen.

Some stories said that the 115 survivors were quickly evacuated to shore while others said the trip took substantially longer.

While numerous credible reports backed up by statistics illuminated just how dangerous oil rigs are, CNN’s Ali Velshi blogged that they are very safe environments.

The most egregious example of erratic, if not downright irresponsible reporting, was a UK news site story Thursday citing U.S. officials as saying the 11 missing workers had been rescued.

Of course, nothing could be further from the truth as the Coast Guard officially called off the search for the missing on Friday, stating that it is likely they all perished in the explosion.