They want to be the first to scare the public, I mean report a story. That's what it comes down to. Whoever gets the first scoop wins the ratings for that time period.
Now..I'm listening to CNN's anchor saying there was "no smoke" when they just had a witness on saying there WAS SMOKE!!! This is the 2nd witness saying that "everything was black because of the SMOKE"...how could they say there was no smoke when these people are saying there was....now this guy is saying there was a fire...and he couldn't breath because of the smoke???