Ask HN: When did a news story first appear online?
We have a news related startup using a unique algorithm and right now we are trying to back test it against competing news organizations.
Yesterday, you all may have heard, there was a hostage situation at the Discovery Channel building. Our software picked up the story at 1:07pm EST. News reports say that the gunman entered the building at 1pm EST.
My question is: First, does anyone know if 1pm is accurate? I find it hard to believe he entered the building at exactly 1pm, but thats what all of the sources say.
Second: How can I find out when news organizations first reported the story after the fact? We are working on automating this using the NYT API, but thats not working now, and I'd like to find out how competitive our app is sooner rather than later.
It looks like we beat @BreakingNews though, this was their first tweet on the story: "Discovery Channel building near Washington evacuated after reports of gunfire, man with explosives"
Thanks!