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How One Twitter User Broke The News Of Whitney Houston’s Death An Entire Hour Before The Press

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-one-twitter-user-broke-the-news-of-whitney-houstons-death-an-entire-hour-before-the-press-2012-2

When news spread Saturday night of Whitney Houston‘s passing, it was the AP who had the first official statement from Houston’s publicist confirming the singer’s death.

But an entire hour before that, Twitter user Brittany J. Pullard (aka @BarBeeBrit) was the first person to tweet the news, according to the below graph posted by Twitter, courtesy of @isaach.

@BarBeeBritt, who resides in Los Angeles and enjoys the Hollywood club scene, as evident by her Twitter feed, tweeted at 4:02pm PST to her then-799 followers:

The tweet only received three retweets and @BarBreeBritt never revealed how exactly she heard the news, but Twitter user @AjaDiorNavy quickly had specific details of Houston’s passing at 4:15pm PST that weren’t released to the public until nearly 24 hours after the initial incident.

Once the AP tweeted the official statement from Houston’s publicist at 4:57pm PST, rapper Lil Wayne quickly expressed his condolences and received 29,000 retweets, according to Mediabistro.

Other celebrities voiced their sympathies as well, but after Lil Wayne, the top tweets went to:

Justin Bieber (15,000 retweets): “just heard the news. so crazy. One of the GREATEST VOICES EVER just passed. RIP Whitney Houston. My prayers go out to her friends and family.”

Nicki Minaj (9,000 retweets): “Jesus Christ, not Whitney Houston. Greatest of all time,” as well as tweeting a vintage photo of the late singer alongside Michael Jackson.

Katy Perry (8,000 retweets): “So devastating. We will always love you Whitney, R.I.P.”

As if there were any doubt, it appears Twitter truly is the fastest news source. Sorry, TMZ, solid effort.

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See Also:

• 48 Years In The Legendary Life Of Whitney Houston
• WATCH: Whitney Houston’s Final Performance
• Here’s A Breakdown Of Whitney Houston’s Finances—And How Her Estate Will Benefit Posthumously