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Mexico City Mayor breaks earthquake news on Twitter

Posted at 5:04 PM, Mar 20, 2012
and last updated 2012-03-20 17:04:29-04

Just in case anyone had their doubts, Twitter is a newswire.

Today, Mexico City Mayor Marcello Ebrard tweeted the news from his Blackberry that the city was experiencing an earthquake.

The translation is “we have an earthquake.”

The news spread quickly, and the Mayor’s tweet went out before the Associated Press broke the news.

The 7. 4 magnitude quake had its epicenter in Guerrero state. CNN reports that tourists and residents felt the quake in the resort city of Acapulco, about a two-hour drive.

Similarly, during the Richmond earthquake on August 23 2011, news spread quickly through Twitter.

In fact, earlier this year Wired Magazine wrote and credited a Richmonderfor breaking the news of the East Coast earthquake last summer.

According to the article, “Eyewitness Tweets,” CeeJay Price, known as @JordnJnkieJuice, tweeted 24 seconds after the earthquake. The tweet was short and sweet: “EARTHQUAKE!!!!!”