by Kevin Coupe

In this world of instant communication and the highly competitive 24-hour news cycle, the immediate aftermath of yesterday's ruling by the US Supreme Court on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) offered a vivid example that while speed is important, it isn't always the most important thing.

The illustration came when Cable News Network (CNN) went on the air with its report - saying that the Court had ruled that much of the law - including the individual mandate requiring people who can afford it to have health insurance - was unconstitutional.

That same report on the Court decision was broadcast by Fox News.

Both reports, of course, were dead wrong, and were based on an incomplete reading of the opinion. The Supreme Court actually ruled the opposite - that President Barack Obama's health care overhaul was constitutional. (Though, to be fair, Chief Justice John Roberts, in writing the decision for the majority, did not say it was a good idea, just that "it is not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices.")

Both CNN and Fox were driven, no doubt, by a desire to be first and a desire to be fast. Technology made both things possible.

But this drives home a lesson that we often point to here on MNB - that just because you can do something, that does not mean that you should do something.

What happened yesterday, on a number of levels, was an Eye-Opener.