February 1, 2003 a vanity was posted on FreeRepublic about something in the sky exploding. Quickly it was associated with the space shuttle Columbia returning to earth.
I turned on the TV and checked all the news channels and nothing was being reported.
FreeRepublic scooped everyone.
FreeRepublic is like a news organization with 10s of thousands of beat reporters working 24/7 from every corner of this nation. If something is happening we will know about it.
The old gatekeepers hate that.
You are correct, I remember the incident well and we ,FR, was the first due to eyes in California I believe. I was just thinking of that incident when I read your post