Jumping to conclusions in Reno air race tragedy

The age of instant communication brings out the best and worst in journalism.

The best certainly is fast, multi-sourced information tumbling in via Twitter, etc. When that information passes through a competent news process the results can be nothing short of extraordinary.

The worst is the tendency to pass along bad information or to jump to wild conclusions.

We saw that in the shooting in Tucson in which politically motivated conclusion jumpers tried to link the shooter to right-wing political motives before anything was known about the shooter.

And we saw it last night when a 65-year-old vintage aircraft piloted by a 74-year-old veteran pilot crashed, killing at least nine and wounding scores.

While people lay wounded and dying, a local pundit well-known for provocative self-promoting conclusion jumping put the blame on the pilot's age.

Now remember, at that point we didn't know hardly a thing about what caused the crash. But this irresponsible guy says the age of the pilot and/or plane made the Reno races "insane"'.

Today, nearly 24 hours after the crash, all we really know about the crash is that it initially appeared mechanical, not pilot error.

We will no doubt find out more as the investigation proceeds. At this point, however, it is incredibly insensitive to point fingers at the pilot without one shred of evidence.

In this age of Twitter, beware the conclusion jumpers. Especially the self-promoters who will say anything to make themselves part of the story ... no matter who they hurt.