Um, Really Big Problem No. 2 is that television news tends to get in the most trouble when it's reporting on the fly. Unsubstantiated reports that have to be retracted, gossip, innuendo, baloney — whatever you want to call it — is the product of putting things on the air as they happen.

Those of us in print media make our own mistakes with deadline reporting, but at least those stories have to go through an editor (or two or three or four) before they get in the paper. The point being not that we always get it right, but that sometimes quicker isn't better.

And, while Blitzer — backed by his CNN bosses — took pains to tell us that they're "serious journalists" who will make sure all their stories are "vetted" and they're "not going to just put stuff on the air to put stuff on the air," that doesn't quite line up with what they're telling us about how "The Situation Room" is going to show us the news-gathering process.

Either we're going to be seeing a reality-show version of reality when it comes to putting a newscast together — in other words, a dramatization of reality — or CNN is ratcheting up the risk of getting things wrong.

"This is not going to be your father's or your grandfather's nightly newscast," Blitzer said. "This is going to be something a lot more exciting to the viewer. And, I think, in the end, a lot more helpful to the viewer because we're not just going to package it and perfect it in the kind of way that maybe old-fashioned television journalism (did). But I think in this day and age people want to get it as we get it."

Call me old-fashioned, but I think it's more important that CNN gets it right than that CNN gets it on the air quick. And I think people would rather be sure what they're hearing is as accurate as humanly possible.

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E-mail: pierce@desnews.com