Like a lot of people, I receive most of my news from through Twitter by following several news organizations and through text messages from several major news organizations. When the news broke about the shooting of U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords being shot along with several other people in Tucson, Arizona, it was the media at its best and at its worst.

First, the media quickly and accurately reported that Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona and several others had reportedly been shot in Tucson.

It went downhill from there. It was chaos. Everyone wants to be first in the news-reporting world, but sometimes being first leaves you with the distinction of being the most wrong.

Several news organizations reported that Giffords had died. Others jumped on the media bandwagon and reported the same thing. Cable news station soon broke in to their regular programming and reported the “breaking news.”

Then someone reported that Giffords was alive and everyone took a step back – and some blamed “authorities” for giving them incorrect information.

Someone on Twitter asked why is it so important to be the first one to report a death.

There were also incorrect reports about the shooter’s last name, which is not that big a thing unless your name is the same as the one erroneously reported.

Here’s a story that explains the whole mess.

We see this happen a lot in this age of the internet and 24-hour news channels. Everyone wants to be the next Walter Cronkite and get their little piece of fame during a major event – and it’s easy with cell phone cameras and wireless access – but it is ultimately up to those who actually report the news for a living to get it correct.

In this case, and for reasons we may never know, they failed.