OMG, TMZ is great!

I just saw a soundbite from a TMZ staffer, reacting to Harvey Levin's quote about some reporter going off against the opposition to the Ground Zero mosque, and the guy said, "Don't you just love it when uninformed people talk about something they have no knowledge of?" (Or words to that effect - I may have been slightly Lone Star buzzed at the time. :-))

Shouldn't it be a pre-requisite of being a reporter that you at least KNOW SOMETHING about what you're reporting on? Wouldn't that tend to make more intelligent questions? I was a TV reporter for 10 years, and I always made sure I knew what I was reporting on before I started asking questions. I didn't want to look like an idiot. Apparently, that's not a problem for most (if not all) TV reporters.

What do you guys think? Should reporters have at least a passing familiarity with the story they're assigned before they actually start reporting (with the obvious exception of breaking news)? Or is it OK for them to do their learning on the job, so to speak?