Reddit isn't really used as "defacto source of breaking news". I mean, local subreddits and other things stiff get prompt information, but it doesn't get as much wide coverage as Twitter.
Sunil Tripathi committed suicide, and while missing was named as one of the Boston bombers by a bunch of Reddit detectives leading to harrassment of his family, but I don't think the suicide was a result of being misidentified.
I think that's where the GP's mistake originated, though, since there was a public misidentification of someone who committed suicide.
Reddit was never on the level of Twitter in terms of real-time news relevancy. Tweets are broadcast on television and used as sources for news stories constantly.