"FR is mentioned in the article."
From what I read, FR appeared to have been their primary source. I recognized fragments of several posts. Funny, though, the "blogs" mentioned had to have fed off of FR coverage spurred on by PhiKapMom's vivid accounts, among others, as she was there. This began right after the game, when no one, at all, had anything to say about it. Yet Free Republic is mentioned as a sort of also ran.
It's a little irritating. But, the truth is getting out. Getting credit is secondary.
Maybe the author is a FReeper, but didn't want to be too obvious.
Either that, or a lurker for sure.
Anyways, we all know FR rules. If I haven't read it here, it hasn't really happened. ;-)
I saw this story in my Google News alert and noticed the same thing.
SO MANY FREEPERS (too many to list at this point) have been instrumental with keeping the pressure on the media to report this, as well as collecting and piecing together our own reports and weeding through rumors and such. Seeing as that's the case I do think folks at FreeRepublic deserve the bulk of credit at this point... But, as you rightly said credit is definitely not as important as the information getting to the public.