White House press pool losing scoops to Twitter

The temptations of Twitter are clashing with a White House press corps tradition: the pool report.

Some reporters in the rotating pool of journalists who chronicle the president’s movements are sending TwitPics, revealing factoids and delivering one-line quips in 140 characters before the pool reports go to all of their colleagues. The pool reporters — usually one representative each from the print, radio, television and wire service press — travel with the president, vice president and sometimes the first lady, recording details about trips and Oval Office events in conversational accounts distributed to other journalists. The conventions dictate that the pool comes first — not the news organization or the individual. Some of the problems have arisen because not all the reports go out at the same time. The main pool report, written mostly by print and online journalists, has to be e-mailed to the White House, which then sends it to an extensive media list. Meanwhile, TV, radio and wire service poolers each email reports directly to their reporter lists without the White House as a go-between. Though the White House doesn't vet the pool reports, sometimes the extra step for print and online journalists delays delivery. As a result, the Twitterverse sometimes learns of the president’s movements before the press corps.