[Congressman Billybob]

This article notes that FR was ahead of the Associated Press and other news outlets on the Columbia disaster, but not as clearly as the Wall Street Journal did.

However, none of the sources that discussed FR scooping the AP made an effort to figure out WHY this bunch of amateurs were able to do that. The reason is that most reporters in the lamestream media are not very well educated, and DON'T THINK ABOUT WHAT THEY ARE REPORTING.

FReepers ARE well-educated. And we DO think about what we are reading and writing. Some of us were able (not me, but others) to see immediately the clues of the failure of the shuttle. So they, and through their posts the rest of us, knew that Columbia was probably lost while all the desk-jockeys in the lamestream media were blowing up balloons for the welcome home party.

Oft times, as here, the WHY of the story is more important and more interesting than the WHAT of the story. And FR deals in WHY as well as WHAT, 24/7.

Congressman Billybob

Click for latest column for UPI, "Those in Peril on the Sea" (Not yet on UPI wire, or FR.)

As the politician formerly known as Al Gore has said, Buy my book, "to Restore Trust in America"

[Rebelbase]

"The reason is that most reporters in the lamestream media are not very well educated, and DON'T THINK ABOUT WHAT THEY ARE REPORTING"

I read something on one of the threads that CNN had reported that the Shuttle was travelling at the "speed of light".

[GovernmentShrinker]

To be fair, the major commercial news outlets do need to add a few steps between what a reporter types out quickly and what is put on the wires and websites. There's no serious financial or reputational fallout, or liability issues, when Joe Freeper posts a comment that turns out to be utterly wrong. But if AP/Reuters/UPI puts a story out on the wire saying the shuttle crashed -- only to find out 5 or 10 minutes later that it really didn't, there's some serious harm done.