Twitter has taken an increasingly prominent role in reporting on huge-but-far-flung breaking news stories, often acting as a modern day foreign news bureau. While this has been a net positive, there are also some serious hiccups. Daily Dose contributing editor Billie Hill notes that bad, but well intentioned, information on American Airlines’ offer to fly doctors and nurses to Haiti for free caused some to report that the offer was a hoax. It was not.

They must have been working double-time in the Time offices this week. In the 36 hours or so since Haiti was devastated by Tuesday’s earthquake the magazine has managed to turn around a cover story on the disaster along with a piece by former President Bill Clinton, who was appointed UN special envoy to Haiti in May of last year.

Adding to Shep Smith’s disgusted reaction to Robertson yesterday is Rachel Maddow, who last night called Robertson “the unintended consequence of your First Amendment.” And you know what? She’s right. Though somehow less frightening in the face of Twitter.

Last night CNN demonstrated what they do best — perform outstanding journalism in moments of crisis. With jaw-dropping imagery and seat-of-the-pants reporting under the most unimaginably difficult of circumstances, Anderson Cooper reminded viewers what real journalism is all about. Cooper demonstrated the right balance of dispassionate reporting and empathetic action while reporting/taping the rescue of a 15 year-old girl trapped under rubble. Video after the jump.

Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough, via his Twitter feed, tried to put Pat Robertson’s comments about Haiti’s pact with Satan, pointing out the televangelist’s charitable relief work. As a result, many in the Twitterverse who see this as a defense of Robertson’s remarks are Scorning Joe. Scarborough fought back. Here are some choice Tweets.

Reminding viewers that CNN is best in crisis mode, Sanjay Gupta was the first U.S. broadcaster to snare and interview with Haitian president RenĂ© Preval. Speaking in broken English, a distraught Preval did his best to answer Gupta’s questions, shot with a low resolution video camera. When asked for a current death toll, Preval had very little information, except that which he had learned form CNN himself. Video after the jump.

The big story today is the terrible, tragic, mounting catastrophe of the earthquake in Haiti. TV, which was hampered in early efforts to cover the story last night, is now back in full force with devastating images of the carnage — shaky video of rubble everywhere, still photos of bleeding victims in the streets — [...]

Ever since word broke of a major earthquake hitting Haiti yesterday afternoon, news outlets have struggled to find the right way to cover this story with precious little information. Judging by last night’s lack of coverage, cable news might only exist when there is footage for broadcast. Of course, a lack of visuals doesn’t make a story any less important, it just makes it harder to cover – which is why both the NY Times and CNN have turned to Twitter feed from individuals

The huge 7.0 magnitude earthquake that hit Haiti late this afternoon has reduced much of that country’s poor, densely-populated capital city of Port-au-Prince to rubble. It’s a devastating story — and one that you’d think the 24-hour cable news networks would have covered. But did they?

The U.S. Geological Survey reports that a magnitude 7.0 earthquake has rocked Haiti. The quake at 1:53 p.m. PST was centered about 10 miles from the capital of Port-au-Prince. The Associated Press reported that a hospital has collapsed. A local tsunami watch was issued for that part of the Caribbean, but the warning from the Pacific Tsunami Watch Center said a widespread threat ”does not exist based on historical earthquake and tsunami data.”