I’m getting really sick of cable news (and local news), claiming every story is breaking.

If you’ve had enough time to put together multiple packages on the subject, and have “team coverage” in the field, it’s probably no longer breaking. The one exception to this rule is weather. A hurricane just coming on shore is breaking news, and most networks will have people there on the scene, ready to lay their lives on the line for “journalism” (no where are you taught journalism is standing on a rain-soaked pier as a hurricane prepares to rip you limb from limb).

This brings me to my problem.

ABC News (and I’m sure other networks) broke in at 10:30 am to announce McCain’s Vice Presidential pick.

At 12:30 pm it was made official by McCain himself.

But at 4:01pm?! Is it really still breaking news when Wolf Blizter comes on for The Situation Room? Especially when this story is all his network has been talking about for 4 hours?

And we wonder why people don’t listen to the media. And why the media isn’t living up to its title as the “Fourth Estate.”