Coal company files defamation suit against NY Times

One of the largest coal companies in the U.S. filed a lawsuit against The New York Times claiming the paper falsely stated the energy producer lied about the causes of a mine disaster.

Chris White of The Daily Caller writes, “Murray Energy filed a lawsuit April 5 alleging NYT’s editorial board falsely claimed company CEO Bob Murray lied when he insisted the collapse of his Crandall Canyon mine in 2007 was because of an earthquake, not poor safety measures.

“Data show that an earthquake triggered the collapse, which killed three additional people attempting to rescue the miners, the company wrote in a May 3 statement announcing the lawsuit. It also noted that federal prosecutors were unable to directly connect safety violations to the mine’s collapse.

“Murray Energy’s lawsuit stems from a graph within an April NYT editorial claiming Murray ‘earned infamy when he falsely insisted that the 2007 collapse of his Crandall Canyon mine, which killed six miners, was due to an earthquake, not dodgy mining practices.'”

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