From WNYC in New York, this is on the media.

Bob Garfield is away this week.

I'm Brooke Gladstone.

And here's what happened Wednesday.

Just days after receiving an experimental drug that hasn't been tested on humans,

42-year-old Thomas Eric Duncan lost his fight against Ebola.

He was the first person to be diagnosed in the United States having traveled

here from Liberia, reportedly after contact with an infected pregnant woman. The CDC says it continues

to monitor the 48 people who may have been in contact with Duncan while he was infectious.

Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian national, was the first person diagnosed with the virus in the U.S.

Here, coverage of his case was relentless as international reporters thronged Duncan's residence and hospital vying for information.

The Dallas Morning News reported that police even heard rumors of journalists posing as pizza delivery guys and

bribing residents to get into his apartment building. But for Liberia's local reporters,

the stakes are much higher, covering the country's biggest story could conceivably kill you.

Rodney Sia is founder and editor of Front Page Africa, based in the capital Monrovia,

an independent newspaper known for its investigations of corruption and human rights violations.

He says that when Ebola began to take hold earlier this year,

many Liberians believed the disease wasn't real.

There were no images of Ebola people dying.

And so a lot of people felt that maybe the government was making this thing up.

There was even a lawmaker who made a remark to say that the Ebola epidemic is a scheme by the government to make money.

So it was very, very difficult for people to believe it.

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