By KEVIN BERTELS
Minneapolis Star Tribune

Night desk editors know that not all stories that are reported elsewhere move on the wire. What they don't know is why. Here's why, from Associated Press sports editor Terry Taylor: The AP wants to get it right.

"We confirm it to the best of our ability," she said. "We look at where it's coming from, who it is. It's never just, 'Oh that's out there. We're grabbing it.' "

Her reporters and editors deal with the same problems that sports desks everywhere face when dealing with Internet reports.

"It's so fast, so instant," she said. "Sometimes in the middle of trying to confirm it, it just goes away. And sometimes our beat writers are telling us that's not true, don't go with it."

Nowhere does a Web report shake as much ground as it shakes at the AP, she said.

"Something will show up online, and our phones will light up," she said. "We're often asked why we don't have something sooner. The fact is, we're on the phone, trying to verify it."

And when the report from wemadeitup.com doesn't move on the wire?

"We just thought it was too shaky to go with," she said.

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