When the Supreme Court of the United States reviews Arizona's 2010 local immigration enforcement law next year, it may be the first time anyone has read the bill since it was written. I exaggerate, of course, but most of the media coverage of Arizona's "Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act" and similar laws in Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina makes you wonder if many in the media have reviewed the legislation themselves.

Arizona has embraced the attrition through enforcement strategy that removes the jobs magnet and enforces immigration law as violations are discovered during the normal course of duties. Many in the press are stuck in the false mass-amnesty-vs.-mass-deportations paradigm and don't understand the attrition option. ABC's World News with Diane Sawyer is the latest high-profile news organization to get the facts wrong when it falsely described Arizona's laws as "[requiring] police to check the immigration status of everyone they stop." I blogged about a similar error made by NPR's chief legal correspondent earlier this year. We've seen similar errors written about enforcement laws in other states.

Here is what Arizona's law says:

For any lawful stop, detention or arrest made by a law enforcement official or a law enforcement agency of this state or a law enforcement official or a law enforcement agency of a county, city, town or other political subdivision of this state in the enforcement of any other law or ordinance of a county, city or town or this state where reasonable suspicion exists that the person is an alien and is unlawfully present in the United States, a reasonable attempt shall be made, when practicable, to determine the immigration status of the person, except if the determination may hinder or obstruct an investigation. Any person who is arrested shall have the person's immigration status determined before the person is released. The person's immigration status shall be verified with the federal government pursuant to 8 United States Code Section 1373(c).

ABC's one-sentence summary is wrong. The law doesn't come close to requiring police to check the immigration status of "everyone they stop." And while it is possible that ABC made an honest mistake, the larger pattern of errors in the media's coverage of Arizona's law is concerning. Too few reporters, it seems, actually know what is in the bill.

You have to give credit to anti-enforcement interests who spend a lot of money spreading false information like that found in ABC's report. However, it is sobering to think that an organization with ABC's resources didn't catch the error. If the ABCs and NPRs of the world don't have the time to read legislation before they report on it, how can we expect smaller papers and news stations to check their facts? How many people have been misinformed by news stories about legislation that exists only in the imaginations of the authors of anti-enforcement press releases?

You can view the ABC report here. The error occurs between the 10:05-10:25 marks. You can also log in to leave a comment on the page. Readers and viewers are often the media's best fact-checkers.

JEREMY BECK is the Director of the Media Standards Project for NumbersUSA