I was looking at this thread, which shot itself in the foot, 
and got to wondering;
If a news organization, CNN, ESPN, MSNBC, or whoever waited to be sure their reporting was accurate at the cost of being behind others, how would we react?
I’d say “I really appreciate Correct But Late’s reporting, because it’s always accurate. I only watch them, even though my co-workers almost always know the news the night before I do”.
Yeah, right! :dubious: Remember, most of the other guy’s reporting is accurate.
NPR aside, would anybody actually accept slow reporting for the sake of accuracy?
(Just kidding, ronincyberpunk.)
I think Kerry’s VP runningmate Dick Gephardt (as per NY Post headlines) would agree that while fast news may be more fun, verification of facts can also have its advantages.
The question then becomes at what point do you excuse sloppy reporting in the pursuit of breaking the first story? After all, hasn’t every American seen Harry Truman holding up the ‘Dewey Wins’ headline photo? 
On a more serious level, at what point does news reporting affect the news being reported on? One example is the 2000 Florida election and the various claims and counter claims about who first declared whom the winner of the election: Not just Fox News and the Bush wins, but also the CNN claim while the polls were still open in the panhandle about Gore winning.
I think that all news media have an obligation to make factually correct reports. Given the amount of opinion in any kind of news reporting that’s not going to be easy to enforce - but that doesn’t mean that egregious examples shouldn’t be chastized anyways. There’s a difference between the sort of error reported in the thread you referenced, mangeorge, the various typos or mis-read ‘correct’ spellings that get pitted from time to time, and then something like Jayson Blair’s reporting, or the similar incident at the McPaper (The name of whom escapes me at the moment.), even the reporting done by the Boston Globe during the King/Dukakis gubernatorial campaign - where mistaken and possibly malicious reporting affected a major election.
I’m aware it’s not really an answer to the question you asked - just my reasoning why I can’t offer a definitive answer one way or the other. :dubious: