This is a relatively recent phenomenon, which I think really started with CNN during the first Gulf War. Before that you had the newspaper, which by its nature had at least a several-hour cooling period, and nightly news, which only needed to cough up half an hour.

When there were critical happenings in real time, we had "special bulletins" and "live coverage" that interrupted programming.

Now there are multiple cable and other news sources that have to deliver news all the time, and if they can't find it, they'll deliver crap, or just make something up.

Unfortunately, I believe our "news" networks have discovered that crap sells.

"Hey, if the other guys said Giffords is dead, it must be true."

"If I don't interview this terrified six-year-old, somebody else will do it."

"It's all I've got right now. Screw confirmation--run with it before the other guys do."

I watched enough Katrina "coverage" to put me off cable news--all networks--for good.

That, and I discovered I had the tools now to find out things better than they could.