COVERING THE POPE

I had the opportunity yesterday to watch the continuing coverage of the Pope's final illness. I spent much of the time on CNN, but switched from time-to-time to Fox News and MSNBC. The big story to come out of yesterday's coverage is about the gaff that happened when an Italian news agency erroneously reported the Pope's death.

While Fox obviously blew it, to their credit CNN immediately qualified the report that they had not independently confirmed it. I am normally a supporter of Fox News. But this incident is just the kind of sloppy journalism that gets them into trouble and provides ammunition for their critics. They are not the only ones to make this kind of mistake. I remember ABC famously reporting Reagan's death erroneously after he was shot in 1981.

The moral of the story? Yes, it is important to get it first. But, more importantly, GET IT RIGHT.