Is the media as instantaneous as it thinks?

SWJ picked up this interesting point from an article in USA Today.

"For the most part, the news media missed the entire story as it unfolded.

For all the hype of today's 24/7 instantaneous news, the media were consistently about six months behind important developments on the ground in Iraq. Newspaper readers in 1876 got more timely information about the Battle of the Little Big Horn."