How to draw something you've never seen

Very interesting article from VisualJournalism.com on how newspapers around the world covered Saddam's capture with accompanying graphics of the 'spiderhole' in which he was captured. The thing is: "not a single one of all the graphics published the first day is correct." Despite subsequent information helping artists to improve the representations, the article also points out that "online content hasn’t changed ... You can check out their content, flash-graphics and animations. They haven't been updated and therefore keep sending the wrong message."