First, Fast and....Not So Accurate.

In a world that has been transformed by non-stop cable TV news coverage and instant feedback on Twitter and Facebook, every shred of information and opinion gets spread far and wide, and fast and furious. And, in many cases, that's not a good thing.

Some of us have been around long enough to remember the TV and radio news slogans of "First, Fast and Accurate."  Now, thanks to the twitterverse and the never-ending effort to be first with every single piece of a breaking story, often accuracy moves way into the back seat...and sometimes decency seems to be road-kill.

Just ask CNN after a roller-coaster day of back-tracking on erroneous reporting this week regarding the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing.

But it's not just the fast and wrong reporting that's troubling, it's the widespread need for some to offer opinions that can be - well - disturbing.

Most of us aren't surprised when it comes from Mount Vernon's own Glenn Beck, who just won't let go of his debunked Obama/Saudi Boston bombing conspiracy theory.

Or maybe you heard about the California radio morning show that got yanked after supposedly making jokes about the Boston bombings.  You can read about it here.

And then there was the Minnesota radio morning show host who is apparently tired of hearing about the families of the children murdered in Newtown. He say's they can "go to hell."  If you find that hard to believe, listen here.

You know what they say about opinions, right?

Hearing and reading about some of this shoot-from-the hip reporting and over-the-top opinions makes me thankful for the more thoughtful and straight-forward information you can always hear on public radio stations, even NPR...and on stations like KSER.  I'm always glad we have voices like Amy Goodman and John Hockenberry.  Reasonable voices like Ed Bremer and Dick Gordon and Sondra Santos.

But that's my opinion.