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).

[smith288]

"This is why we need a live discussion thread daily......news breaks when you least expect it..... "

Dog dog dog...u just wont let that idea go will you? haha

[Dog]

LOLOL!

I still have the scorch marks from that morning thank you very much.....:-)

[quesera]

GREAT!!

Congratulations to FR, moderators, and all freepers who made this forum the invaluable resource that it is today.

[nicmarlo]

Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster Archive

[Admin Moderator]

It's a chat thread. Plus a whole lot more. I tried to capture that in my post. I meant it no slight. Primarily in it, people chat. But within that chat comes pointers to other FR highlights, ideas for great threads come, and other assorted beneficial things. Is that better? :-)

[smith288]

Put some aloe on it. and this... ... for next time.

[Dog]

LOL!

[jern]

Thumbs up to FR!

[aruanan]

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.

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.

[apackof2]

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

This is really BIG in the world of wire-service reporting AND a link back to FR!

[StriperSniper]

It will take AP at least a week to come up with the experts to tell them stuff that was already on the first FR thread.

And I bet they will get half if it wrong, like a little while ago CNN had on the 'Alert' section, over the crawl, that Columbia was traveling at "nearly 18 times the speed of light".

Schmuks!(sp?)

[lodwick]

Very cool - thanks for the link.

[Petronski]

I was reading that thread in real time and it was an experience I will never forget.

[A Citizen Reporter]

Something you ought to see!

[summer]

Thanks for posting this news. From that same Wall Street Journal page:

February 2, 2003
2:36pm EST


Astronaut Ilan Ramon, the Israeli mission specialist, carried with him into space this pencil drawing titled "Moon Landing," drawn by Peter Ginz -- a 14 year old boy murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz.

The Price of Appeasement

A priceless artifact was lost when the Columbia broke up: a pencil drawing that Israeli mission specialist Ilan Ramon had brought along. Titled "Moon Landing" (and shown alongside), it depicted the Earth seen from the moon, as imagined by a young visionary named Peter Ginz some six decades ago. The Nazis murdered Peter Ginz at Auschwitz in 1944. (Ramon's mother was also an Auschwitz inmate, but she survived.)

Peter was 14, so if he had lived, he would be about 10 years younger than John Glenn. Who knows--if the West had stopped Hitler earlier, Peter Ginz just might have grown up to become an astronaut.

[Tamzee]

Free Republic is awesome and I am so happy to see it get this recognition :)

Regards,
Tammy

[firewalk]

Thanks Nic (-:

[Howlin]

There's "one" at every party, and I guess you're "it."

Knock it off.

[Bob]

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.

The WSJ writer was directly quoting the thread itself. He probably should have put in a [sic] after the misspelling.

While I agree that it's unfortunate there was the typo, I don't think it significantly detracts from the thread.