Politico Rushes to Crack the Story And Ends Up With Egg on Its Face

Smith, a former New York Daily News reporter, said he got in touch with the Edwards friend after sending him "a chatty, half-hearted e-mail" shortly after 10 a.m. Smith wrote that the source "spoke with authority and detail" about Elizabeth Edwards's cancer and her husband's decision to suspend his campaign.

At 11:08, Smith, who was in New York, e-mailed his editor that he had the story. The editor asked how "solid" it was, and Smith said that the information was from a good source. The blog posting went up at 11:16.

At 11:28, Edwards spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield e-mailed Smith -- under the heading "Just so you know" -- that "anything you are getting from someone claiming to know right now is not true. Anyone claiming to know something right now is making it up. There is no information from this campaign until John and Elizabeth speak at noon." Smith updated his item but did not change the "Edwards to Suspend Campaign" headline.

The candidate and his wife emerged for their news conference at 12:20 and announced their decision to continue the campaign.

Given the story's importance, Smith wrote, "I should have waited for a second source, or hedged the item much more fully. Or simply waited for the news conference like everybody else."

Asked why it was important to get a one-hour jump on news that Edwards and his wife were about to report anyway, Harris, a former Washington Post editor and reporter, said that blogs, unlike news stories, "share information in real time," based on what the writer has pieced together. But, he said, a blog "should not be different than a news story in its accuracy or fairness."

Howard Kurtz hosts CNN's weekly media program, "Reliable Sources."