Massey CEO Don Blankenship produces video denying responsibility for mine disaster

To make sure he rubbed enough salt in the wounds, Blankenship’s 51-minute video was released less than a week before the anniversary of the disaster. Disgusting coward.

The Charleston Gazette
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
Upper Big Branch families protest Blankenship video
By Ken Ward Jr., Staff writer
See more at: http://www.wvgazette.com/article/20140402/GZ01/140409856#sthash.Q5tOB2TL.dpuf

About two-dozen family members and supporters of the victims of the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster gathered Wednesday afternoon outside the federal courthouse in Charleston to voice their opposition to an Internet video in which former Massey CEO Don Blankenship denies any responsibility for the 2010 explosion that killed 29 miners.

“It makes me very angry,” said Shereen Atkins, whose 25-year-old son, Jason, died in the blast. “Even with something as big as this — killing 29 men — he has no remorse. He could care less that he killed 29 employees that day.”

Atkins and other family members carried signs that urged federal officials to prosecute Blankenship, who funded the new video to criticize state, federal and independent investigations that blamed the disaster on Massey’s poor safety practices.

Tommy Davis, a UBB miner whose son, Corey, was killed in the disaster, said Blankenship needs to “man up” and “take the blame” for what happened.... MORE