National Journal Dodges Embargo, Releases Full Text Of State Of The Union

In what is likely to become a big media story in the next day or two, National Journal has released the full text of the President State of the Union Address while it was still under press embargo:

In his State of the Union speech, President Obama is to make a plea for bipartisan effort to move forward if America is to triumph over the new challeges of the global economy.

(…)

Here is the full text of the speech draft, obtained by National Journal: from a Democratic insider who who declined to be identified because the source would be violating the White House’s embargo:

You can read the speech draft at the link if you like but the real story is, who broke the embargo?

Update: As Tommy Christopher points out, National Journal didn’t technically break the embargo. However, whoever provide them with the text of the speech did. The White House can’t be too thrilled about that.

FILED UNDER: Congress, Media, US Politics, , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. john personna says:

    I have no idea why they’d release and embargo these days. Just publish on-line as he starts talking.

    Interesting that it does have a spending freeze. Is it just “domestic discretionary” and what does that mean?

  2. mantis says:

    Wikileaks!

  3. Tlaloc says:

    “The White House can’t be too thrilled about that.”

    I don’t know, without a fake “we really don’t want you to read this” nobody would, you know, read it. Since the SOTU is all about getting the message they want out having it leaked and thus juicy is a big plus.

  4. James Joyner says:

    @jp: Good point on the Web publishing. But they’re not releasing it so that people can get up transcripts but so that they can write their stories ahead of deadline. The speech is so late that it would be hard to get the story out before the New York Times and Washington Post print edition goes to bed. Or, at least that was the justification in the old days; I’m not up on the current state of printing technology or the distribution system.

  5. john personna says:

    I get the old reason, to let the journos go home early. I’m just not sympathetic.