The good news is that now more than ever, the news media can't get away with sloppy reporting. If you weren't following last week's battle between House Speaker Dennis Hastert and ABC News' Brian Ross, then maybe ABC News can still count you as a viewer.

The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz has a succinct summary of the case, which revolves around whether or not Hastert is "in the mix" of the investigation surrounding convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. ABC contends that Hastert is "in the mix" (which may or may not be the equivalent to "under investigation"). Hastert, with backing from the Justice Department -- including two public statements debunking the ABC News story -- says he is not.

I don't know if Hastert's guilty of any illegal or even unethical behavior -- and if you study ABC News' reporting, they don't know either. However, I do know that ABC News is in potential legal jeopardy.

You see, even after the Justice Department twice denied that Hastert is under investigation, ABC News stuck with their story. Hastert is a public figure, and as such would have to prove malice or reckless disregard for the truth on the part of ABC News to succeed with a libel or slander lawsuit. It was one thing to report it the first time -- reporters get stuff wrong daily -- but to continue to assert the truth of their story after the Justice Department denials certainly meets the "reckless disregard" standard.

Second, if a lawsuit was filed and this went to trial with the facts remaining as they do today vis a vis Hastert's legal status, then ABC News' only defense would be to trot out their anonymous sources, something they're unlikely to do. That translates into some time behind bars for Brian Ross and a default judgement against ABC News for libel.

Having said that, I'm watching "Fox News Watch's" Jane Hall of American University say that ABC's mistake is that they "got way out in front of the story." If you're attending American University and taking one of Ms. Hall's classes, get your money back. In the real world, when you "get way out in front of the story" it means you got it wrong.