The Web Gets a Scoop (Congratulations, Free Republic!)

Wall Street Journal ^ | Feb. 2, 2003 | James Taranto

[conservativegirl]

Free Republic mentioned in Best of the Web. Way to go Freepers! (Sorry if this is already posted - didn't see it).

[sweetliberty]

"every local conservative and semi conservative talk show host get their material from Free Republic"

Not only that, but by reading through the threads they can get every possible angle from which to approach it.

[leadpenny]

So who spelled "descent" as "decent"? It doesn't sound as though a writer for the WSJ would do so, but sounds all too like a typical poster here. Too bad FR has to show its illiterate side to the world at the same time as getting accolades for being quick.

02/02/2003 2:36 PM EST

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There you are!

I did that just to irritate and embarrass you. Thank goodness it worked.

It took so long for you to catch the unforgivable error, I thought you may have missed it.

[don-o]

Too bad FR has to show its illiterate side to the world at the same time as getting accolades for being quick.

I don't know who spelled a word wrong, but I typed "Folks, I'm fear the worst has happened."

My fingers were shaking and my pulse was at about 300.

[nepdap]

Free Republic scooped the AP by at least 11 minutes--which is an eternity in the competitive world of wire-service reporting.

Saturday morning I was stuck in a hotel room in San Antonio. We had a few cable stations, and no internet. :-( We did have FOX news and CNN. While AP may not have reported the news immediately, to be honest, CNN went to live and constant coverage from the time communication had been lost for 2 minutes, long before AP picked it up. I'd say that the main lesson of this article is that AP is S-L-O-W.

[MeekOneGOP]

Wow ! Excellent ! Thanks for the ping. Sorry it took me so long to get back to ya. I was out much of yesterday and I'm playin' Ketchup...again...as usual...lol !

It's said that journalism is the first draft of history. If so, the Internet sometimes affords us a glimpse at history's rough outline. At 8:38 a.m. EST yesterday, a reader of the Free Republic Web site started a discussion thread for shuttle enthusiasts:

Space Shuttle Columbia is in a decent for the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and will pass over the San Francisco Area around 6:00 AM Pacific Time. Route will take the Shuttle over Las Vegas, Flagstaff, etc. NASA has still not decided which runway will be used. Landing will be at 9:16 AM Eastern.

Other Freepers joined in, describing the view of the descending shuttle from the West Coast--then gradually realizing something was amiss. Someone asks at 8:58 a.m. EST, "Was it glowing at all?" The first clear sign of trouble comes in a post at 9:05 a.m. We won't quote any more than this, because you really have to read the full thread to appreciate the drama. But it's worth noting that the first word of trouble didn't come across the Associated Press wire until 9:16, the scheduled landing time. Free Republic scooped the AP by at least 11 minutes--which is an eternity in the competitive world of wire-service reporting.

[Grampa Dave]

Absolutely! There are so many different slices and dices of the news from all angles by Freepers which would be a lot of road maps for a talk show host to follow. He or she can pick the one that suits their personality and conservative style.

[EdReform]

"One can only imaging the power of FR if we had 100,000+ active freepers sharing their time, talent and 17 cents per day of their treasure or a simple $5/month donation to Free Republic. One can only imagine what Jim and John Robinson could do to make Free Republic even more of a PIA for the left wing."

Needs to be repeated

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks here is a bump and a repeat:

"One can only imaging the power of FR if we had 100,000+ active freepers sharing their time, talent and 17 cents per day of their treasure or a simple $5/month donation to Free Republic. One can only imagine what Jim and John Robinson could do to make Free Republic even more of a PIA for the left wing."

[L.N. Smithee]

Sorry. There's a bad link for my exclusive story about Clinton's further perjury responding to Henry Hyde:

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L.N. SMITHEE WORLD EXCLUSIVE!!! WHITE HOUSE WEB SITE CONTRADICTS CLINTON'S ANSWER TO HYDE!!!

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[skinkinthegrass]

YOU GOT IT AGAIN! :)

[skinkinthegrass]

Spell Checher? Nah, Don't need it...cost to much :)

[Gophack]

ping

[bonesmccoy]

Thanks for the posting.

I thought it would be of value to post the other threads (which were locked by the admin). They had relevant postings. Since your message is discussing timing of reports, these other posts are relevant to the discussion which rapidly evolved between 6 AM and 7 AM Pacific time on FR on 2-1-03.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/833911/posts?page=6#6

and

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/833912/posts

These threads were locked, but the postings should be integrated into the historic record of this website's communication.

God bless the crew of STS-107!