One I will never forget was back in 2002 during the Moscow Opera House siege, where the Chechnyan jihadists took 850 hostages. There was a FReeper living in Moscow who happened to spot the Russian Spetsnaz forces arrival, and reported it from his window where he was able to see a lot of what was going on. His live reports preceded even those of the Russian media, which he was also able to translate and report for us once their media began coverage.
Things like that are FR at its best, imo. I don’t recall in the past that original or exclusive breaking news content required a news source. That’s too bad.
You are quite right. I remember reading the Columbia disaster live thread and how ahead of the curve FReepers were about what was happening. I was on FR as the Great White concert turned into a disaster and the thread had numerous comments from fire fighters who gave much better commentary than was available in the media. Then, of course, the legendary Rathergate story.