When Did First = Best?

This is a random observation I've made about our society as of late. One that really has started to goad at me. Since when did we equate doing something first to doing it right?

Some examples. First, I was watching the World Cup and they have the little "text who you think is the most valuable player' contest. At about half-way through the game you're supposed to pick who was most important in the match. Half-way through the game? It was 0-0. What if someone scored a goal in the second half, the only, game winning goal? They were not included. Why? Because we have to be the first to announce who the player of the game is, not necessarily make the right choice.

Another one. Politics. Who watched the last election? I did. I was a little intrigued because we do things differently in Canada. But then I noticed something. Every station had different numbers. One said Bush had won 83 seats. Another 120. Then there was Fox, which had Bush at 239 seats for the whole night until they could officially say he had won the 240th and won the election. And what's worse, these stations were making assumptions on states and counties after only 7% of the votes had been tabulated. 7%?! How on earth can you make a fair call on 7% of the information? Apparently being the first to say who won was more important than actually giving the citizens who voted the correct facts.

Let's go with one more. Science. Please understand, I love the pursuit of science, I've just learned to hate the business of science. For those that don't know, here's how the business works. Scientists have to earn grants, be it from companies or the government. So it's not based on actual information, it's based on the perceived value of the information. No one wants to pay someone for three years of research to find out that what so-and-so discovered 200 years ago is still right. So they jump the gun to try and be the first to have the slightest shred of proof so they can get funding. Example? Saturn's moon. I'm not sure if you heard this, but they took a picture of one of the moons and found energy being released. So what did that mean? To the average person, it means there's energy. Nothing more until we find out more. But in the business of science, we have to assume more so we get funding, so apparently energy under ice = water = life = aliens living on Saturn's moon that we must find (because aliens will get you money every time).

Whatever happened to finding truth, even if you are the second, third or three hundredth to find it?

T