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).

[Barnacle]

Free Republic, the True Voice of America!

[bootless]

FReeper Bumps back to you, David. Thanks for the mention and kind words!

[Mo1]

I hope she does, and that she fears us! LOL!

LOL ...

BTW I noticed you beat me to this thread

[LowOiL]

This is exactly what I said on the thread on it. FR is first and big time this time.

Bookmark.

[snippy_about_it]

Oops. Sorry I double posted, I think it's locked now.

I did a search of the title "Best of the Web" and couldn't find it. It's good news though isn't it.

[LowOiL]

9/11, but the threads from that day are just as chilling.

You are so correct Seamole, I still go back and read them at times. Very Sad, real, and chill bumps with every post.

[LowOiL]

Notice how FreeRepublic has now entered the top 1000 web sites on the www. Now at 813 I believe, and climbing fast. That is over a 300% gain this week alone.

[LowOiL]

Opps, on second glance, that is a 385% advance in the last 3 months, not for just a week. But we are a top 1000 web site on the net, and I think yesterday was 813th.

[Grampa Dave]

This is incredible but we have seen it before here on Free Republic:

The Web Gets a Scoop 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.

I learned about the shuttle problem on Free Republic. My wife went to the tv, and I stayed on FR. She would come in to get up dated every 5-10 minutes. Finally she turned off the tv and told me to update her which I did.

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.

My recovering from liberalism son in Portland, Oregon is laughing at how the rats stealth tax increase referendum was voted/shot down last week. Freepers are being blamed all over the Portland area. He just laughs and tells them, "They ain't seen anything yet!" He stop laughing at us when we put the FIRE bill board up on I5 by Medford, Oregon last year.

[unspun]

little commo problem right now.

21 posted on 02/01/2003 8:05 AM CST by leadpenny

[Redcloak]

Of course FR scooped the rest of the world; that's why I ran to the 'puter and dialed up FR when I saw that something was amiss.

I woke up well after it had happened. I turned on the TV and saw what looked like old footage of Challenger debris. That made a vague amount of sense. I figured that it was simply a piece reporting on the anniversary of the accident. But then I realized that it just didn't look like any of the footage I remember. I flipped through a few channels and saw that they were all showing the same footage. It was then that I dashed to the computer to log onto FR.

[finnman69]

Impressive BUMP!

[blackie]

Be Well - Be Armed - Be Safe - Molon Labe!

[HighWheeler]

Hey Low, I like the "Large" view, available on the right hand side of the Alexa Page, it really shows off the acceleration of FR in the last 2 weeks against Salon:

[aruanan]

Did anyone hear Fox TV report that an AP reporter added a smear in a profile of the crew?

I'm surprised they chose to include only one such anecdote.

[wimpycat]

I was checking the headlines yesterday morning prior to going to visit my folks in the Land of No Computers, when I ran across this thread: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/833908/posts This was the 1st notice I had that there was any trouble. I think it was the second thread that was started after the first thread (the one cited by the WSJ). Anyway, I just opened the thread and started scanning down the posts and realized that something was up. But, like the Challenger disaster back in 1986, I didn't believe it at first. I was thinking, "No, there's obviously just some technical glitch. They'll get them back on the radar at any moment." Back in 1986, I had just come back to class from my lunchbreak when a classmate asked me if I had heard that the Challenger blew up. I remember telling her, "No, that's impossible! Where did you hear that? There's obviously some mistake." Both times it took me a little while to accept the truth.

So, FR was mentioned in the WSJ? We're getting into the big leagues now! I wonder who else is lurking and reading every word we're saying?

[glock rocks]

for everything else Free Republic is... and that's plenty... (get out of Cheney's house!) ...

it is still the premiere breaking news site on the web. that's what brought me here during the dark years...

and that's what now brings me here when events are unfolding.

and while you're here, don't be so sure you aren't rubbing shoulders with brit, ann, tony and rush, either.

God bless Jim Robinson for his creation. God bless Free Republic, and God bless America.

[antaresequity]

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

Can You Hear Us Now!

[mware]

That is very interesting. I was at the computer row at CPAC, when the news started to break. I went right to FR to see if a thread was going. Some folks from the media, were near me. When I started to read out some of the threads, one of the guys asked me, "Is that a live time thread you are reading from.?"