[Spirited]

Vital!

[Indy Pendance]

Cool, they even have a link to the thread!

[isthisnickcool]

BUMP-A-SCOOP!

[Chi-townChief]

It's just a shame that it had to come on such a bad event but I guess it's true what they say: no news is good news.

[MozartLover]

Check it out; look at "Web Gets A Scoop".

This is the thread I linked to ATRW yesterday afternoon.......

[Bob]

A snip of the relevant portion:

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.

The article includes a link back to the FR thread. I hope this isn't too big a snip. If it is, please delete it, Admin Moderator

[ladyinred]

It was amazing to read the live thread as it happened!
So happy to see that the Journal acknowledged the fact!
This happens often here, such as the earthquake that happened a few minutes ago in the Bay area of California!

[nicmarlo]

I read that thread, yesterday afternoon......it was emotional, to say the least....first to read the eager anticipation, then the concern and confusion, and ultimately, to read the confirmed realization that something definitely was very wrong.....

[TLBSHOW]

Told ya!

[Clara Lou]

Impressive!

[Angelwood]

Thanks for posting this article. FReepers -- We're Everywhere! We do have people throughout the country and beyond who post breaking news and scoop the mainstream press -- often. Well done.

[Johnny Gage]

HOOOOYAH for the Robinson's. Scooping AP. What a wonderful world.

[big'ol_freeper]

big'ol_bump

[A CA Guy]

Wow, I think FR beats the press on a gazillion other issues and stories as well. Thanks for posting this.

[scouse]

I hope the Hildebeast doesn't read this, then she'll really believe there is a Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. :^))

[Cicero]

As usual Taranto gets it right, with a little help (properly acknowledged) from Mark Stayn. Liberals wallow in pretended grief because in the face of death they don't really know what to do. That's why bill clinton made such a good funeral director for the liberal media, never failing to show up at someone's funeral (even when he caused it, as in the case of Ron Brown) to shed a fake tear.

When they don't fake it, then you get something like Paul Wellstone's funeral.

I don't know whether Taranto was logged into FreeRepublic when the disaster happened, but he knows about the website to come take a look, and he knows enough about breaking news to check the times. So it's on the record that FR was first.

If he had said anything else about that thread, he might have mentioned the genuine sorrow, the determination to go on, and the extraordinary expertise in analyzing what might have happened. 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.

[nicmarlo]

FYI ping

[txhurl]

We should compile them a list of all the Columbia threads we're maintaining. Some fantastic info, along with harrowing photography.

[My Favorite Headache]

Liberals have to be hating this...the DU must be drowning. What a week for America this is going to be. Just wait for W to speak to Congress and Powell to the UN. The lib's had their moments in the last 4 weeks to smear. Conservative news forums beating up AP and next we will be all over the place with how much we were on the right side of history again with the Iraq conflict.

Plain and simple...we assume control.

[SamAdams76]

I had no plans on watching the shuttle land yesterday at all until I saw leadpenny's post on Free Republic. I was just about to go out the door and get some errands done when I saw the thread. So I turned on the TV and started to watch.

It turned out being one of the most surreal experiences of my life. For I was watching NASA TV (not one of the news channels) and there was little or no commentary. Just a liveshot of Mission Control and some audio of radio transmissions. On the wall was the tracking of the shuttle as it went over the California coast, through Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico. When it got to Texas, all tracking seemed to stop. That got my attention but the folks at Mission control stayed so cool, calm and collected that I got no indication that anything was out of the ordinary. Even with the repeated attempts to contact the shuttle through UHF, I didn't see any need for concern. After all, everybody at Mission Control was just sitting there quietly doing their jobs. If there was an emergency, I figured there would be some frenetic activity and arm-waving, etc. The only movement I saw was one guy in a blue shirt walking briskly up and down the corridor.

By the time it was 9:10, I knew something was not right. I haven't seen many Shuttle landing but I know that by now, the NASA coverage would normally have switched to Florida where the Shuttle would be coming into view for the 9:16 landing.

When 9:16 came and went, curiosity got the best of me and I switched over to FoxNews. I must tell you that my heart stopped when I saw the Breaking News graphic NASA LOSES CONTACT WITH SHUTTLE. I knew at that moment that something catastrophic had happened.

And I never would have been watching it at all was it not for Free Republic. Virtually every breaking story over the past few years I got from Free Republic. And not only do we get the news here before most everybody else but we can begin discussing it amongst ourselves immediately. What a resource this site has turned out to be.