In the rush...

In the rush to be the "first" to report anything, it appears that a lot of misinformation has been relayed about the status of Saddam Hussein. At 11:47 am Eastern Fox News reported that Saddam had been handed over, by his American security contingent, to Iraqi authorities. Reuters and Breitbart reported it about a two minutes later. One of Saddam's attorneys (it was reported had even confirmed it. Then at 2:47 pm Eastern, the brakes went on. He hadn't really been handed over after all. It was just a false alarm.

Now fully appreciate the fact that there is a need for content, in this era of 24 hour a day news channels. However, can we please, please, PLEASE try to make half an attempt to verify a story before we report it as fact. Is that too much to ask of todays world of gatekeepers and journalism "professionals"?

Is it any wonder that so few people trust the media and why so many of us turn to alternative sources for our news?

(reporting timeline courtesy of Michelle Malkin - with a few of my own observations thrown in)