When Tim Russert died on Friday, the first television media outlet to report the news was NBC, with Tom Brokaw interrupting the broadcast with a "Special Report." Except he didn't break the news. Many credit the New York Post with the story, which got picked up by the Drudge Report at approximately 3:33pm EST; six minutes later, at 3:39pm, Brokaw was on the air. (Rumor has it, sources at Fox News and CNN also had the story, but they held it so NBC could break the news.)

Except none of those guys actually broke the news. In all likelihood, as Jon Fine notes, Wikipedia did. At 3:01pm, Russert's Wikipedia entry was updated … with a date of death: "Timothy John Russert, Jr. (born May 7, 1950 died June 13, 2008) is an American journalist who has hosted NBC's Meet the Press since 1991." A little snooping revealed that whoever updated the entry logged on from a computer at Internet Broadcasting Systems, which runs the websites for NBC's owned-and-operated local stations.

And while the old guard might be surprised that anything less than an authority like Brokaw could be the one to break the news, those living in the now know this is a foolish notion. In its short lifetime, Wikipedia has a history of breaking death news.

There was February 8, 2007, when Anna Nicole Smith's Wikipedia entry was updated with a report that she had died. The Associated Press's breaking news story followed that.

Then there was the June 24, 2007, when WWE wrestler Chris Benoit's Wikipedia entry was updated with news of his death a full 14 hours before authorities found the body of he and his wife Nancy, leading to much speculation over who could've known about his death before the cops.

And, of course, there was that early weekend this March when Wikipedia's founder, Jimmy Wales, used the site to break news of his own: that he was breaking up with former Fox News chatterbox Rachel Marsden. Not exactly an actual obituary, but to some, it was the end of an era.