We Want Media

Just one hour before presidential candidate John Edwards held a press conference regarding his wife's health and the future of his campaign, Politico's Ben Smith posted news of Edward's campaign suspension, after a tip from "Edwards' friend."

In minutes the story had hit the airwaves on CNN, NBC and Fox News. Exploding on the internet, the story was attirbuted to Politico on MSNBC.com, Newsday, New York Daily, and cbsnews.com. Just an hour later, however, the story was proved wrong, by the word of Edwards himself.

Our last guest lecturer, Brian Montopoli of CBS Public Eye, as well as washingtonpost.com's Howard Kurtz wrote on the two-month-old web site's rush to report.

Smith later apologized on his blog and editor in chief of Politico, John Harris, took partial blame: "It's his error, but also ours as editors, because we knew the information he had and what his source was."

I understand the want and expectation of a blog to publish now, now, now. But with such a huge story, a blogger -- especially for a print publication -- should exercise journalistic principles and values. The story should have been published as speculation before other sources (or, you know, Edwards at his news conference just minutes later) could verify.