Thank you, Brett.  

There certainly is a lot of "spin" going on.  These days political and popular figures can fabricate story lines on  any issue to create distraction from salient issues.   National tv media is often very quick to respond to any news breaking tweet or comment.  In the past, being first to break a story indicated a lot of time and investigation behind the scenes.  As you pointed out..."speed isn't the most important factor".

People in general avail themselves to media that supports their beliefs, whether it is well researched or not.  What or whom we support is based more upon emotion than we like to think.  What media reporters cover or how they chose to present a story is no different than what media consumers chose to absorb (or not).  

Your thoughts on giving time before responding to comments is well taken.  Perhaps looking at our own emotional responses to comments before writing online would promote the civil discourse that Civil Beat encourages.