Reporter Caught Playing Pokemon Go During US State Dept Briefing

[Lizzy Finnegan]

Reporter Caught Playing Pokemon Go During US State Dept Briefing


"You're playing the Pokemon thing right there, aren't you?"

It's a sad truth that there have been some weird stories [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/167951-People-Quitting-Jobs-Walking-off-Cliffs-and-Hit-by-Cars-Playing-Pokemon-GO] surrounding the release of Pokemon Go, including people quitting their jobs, walking off cliffs, and accidentally crashing into parked police cars while playing the successful AR mobile game. But now, in one of the less harmful and possibly funniest situations, the game has successfully distracted a State Department spokesperson who was trying to talk about ISIS.

John Kirby, a US State Department spokesman, was delivering a briefing on efforts to combat ISIS when he suddenly stopped mid-sentence in order to call out a reporter - because he was playing "the Pokemon thing," aka Pokemon Go.

"As the Secretary said earlier today though, and I think it's an important reminder... you're playing the Pokemon thing right there, aren't you?"

The reporter responded by saying "I'm just keeping an eye on it," and Kirby finished his briefing. At the end, before taking a question from someone off-screen, Kirby asked the unidentified reporter if he got one, to which the reporter responded "No, the signal's not very good."

"I'm sorry about that," Kirby responded, although there's something that makes me think he wasn't actually sorry about it.



In other news, Pokemon Go has finally released in Japan [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/167996-Pokemon-GO-Japan-Launch].


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[47_Ronin]

To be fair, though, those briefings sound more like an advertisement/marketing speech, than actually briefings on the geopolitical ongoings in the world. You hear one you've heard them all. Can you blame a guy for drifting off?

 

[Voxoid]

To be fair, though, those briefings sound more like an advertisement/marketing speech, than actually briefings on the geopolitical ongoings in the world. You hear one you've heard them all. Can you blame a guy for drifting off?

I'm not an American citizen, nor do I like to have anything to do with their useless politics but this is just an f'ing joke. It's a stupid bloody game with pretend pokemon in it. There's a proper time and place for stuff like that. These guys are supposed to professionals and they're supposed to be discussing ways of dealing with these scumbag Isis filth, yet the braindead idiots are sitting around playing this crap instead of actually doing anything. ffs, no wonder the world is in the current state that it is, what a goddamn joke. People bloody sicken me these days.

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

To be fair, though, those briefings sound more like an advertisement/marketing speech, than actually briefings on the geopolitical ongoings in the world. You hear one you've heard them all. Can you blame a guy for drifting off?

A bit, yeah. It's in the title. A reporter reports. That requires attention. People pay this person gather information and come back to us with it.

Just like I'd blame a security guard not focusing on his job looking for Pikachu, A cop turning off his radio so he can spend time with candy crush, or a cabbie coming late to your house making you miss your plane because there was an alert with his Mobile Strike.

 

[Baresark]

Well, that reported is fucked. If I was his editor I would see he never went to one again. Listen, I sit in boring meetings at my job too, but I would never whip out a game in the middle of anyone talking. It's just idiotic.

 

[cikame]

While stupid and embarrassing, it's a funny little reminder of freedom, in a briefing about fighting evil.

 

[Ukomba]

To be fair, though, those briefings sound more like an advertisement/marketing speech, than actually briefings on the geopolitical ongoings in the world. You hear one you've heard them all. Can you blame a guy for drifting off?

A bit, yeah. It's in the title. A reporter reports. That requires attention. People pay this person gather information and come back to us with it.

Just like I'd blame a security guard not focusing on his job looking for Pikachu, A cop turning off his radio so he can spend time with candy crush, or a cabbie coming late to your house making you miss your plane because there was an alert with his Mobile Strike.

One might say this reporter succeeded in bringing far more attention to this briefing than it would otherwise have gotten.

 

[LysanderNemoinis]

Wait, you're expecting professionalism in the American press? That's cute. They don't need to listen to what's going on or do their job, because the articles are already written before they attend the meetings: "Obama good. Republicans band. Obama good. It's George Bush's fault. Hillary good. Trump bad." It's not like they're actually going to report on something important. So I say let them play Pokemon Go, at least then they have an excuse for not doing their supposed job instead of just being lazy, biased hacks for the political elite.

 

[American Fox]

They should drop crates of smartphones loaded with Pokemon Go on ISIS territory. Get everyone playing games and stop shooting each other.

 

[Vykrel]

They should drop crates of smartphones loaded with Pokemon Go on ISIS territory. Get everyone playing games and stop shooting each other.

they would just use the smart phones to trigger bombs.

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

One might say this reporter succeeded in bringing far more attention to this briefing than it would otherwise have gotten.

Sure. But incompetence doesn't go away if something good comes out of it. Jonathan Aledda, the officer who shot Charles Kinsey while he was on the ground, told his Police representative that he was aiming at the mentally challenged ward of Kinsey when he fired. Aledda thought the autistic man had a gun and was gesturing that he was going to fire at Kinsey, even though Kinsey said over and over that all the autistic man had in his hand was a toy truck.

Aledda shot to kill Kinsey's ward. With little understanding of the situation, Aledda decided the best thing was to end a life and see if that stopped the conflict. And he missed. And got Kinsey in the leg.

His incompetence kept two people alive. That's good. What's bad is that if he had his way, there would be an innocent man dead.

The Reporter is now a liability to his company's name, no matter what focus he might have brought to the meeting. Because more important is the spectacle than the news.

Wait, you're expecting professionalism in the American press? That's cute. They don't need to listen to what's going on or do their job, because the articles are already written before they attend the meetings: "Obama good. Republicans band. Obama good. It's George Bush's fault. Hillary good. Trump bad." It's not like they're actually going to report on something important. So I say let them play Pokemon Go, at least then they have an excuse for not doing their supposed job instead of just being lazy, biased hacks for the political elite.

We... must read and watch very different news sources. I pretty much see the reverse of what you see most of the time, but I guess in nature, we focus on what we believe to be bad or wrong.

 

[FalloutJack]

This is seriously getting out of hand. It's getting to the point where I'll have to step in out of the shadows and rule the world more openly because you people can't even perform your daily business without being interrupted by Pokemon.

 

[Baresark]

Well, that reported is fucked. If I was his editor I would see he never went to one again. Listen, I sit in boring meetings at my job too, but I would never whip out a game in the middle of anyone talking. It's just idiotic.

Ah go easy on the poor guy. You aren't wrong about him screwing up, but at the same time- people do stupid things all the time at work even before Pokemon GO came out. Some reporters were probably playing some mobile app and never got caught by the likes of spokesman or politicians. Besides the reporter could of been multi tasking, which I know people are capable of.

This doesn't excuse him from using the app but a warning would of sufficed. Outright firing him would give you a bad rep and no one wants to work for those that are fire-happy employers. I'd take this moment as a simple mishap and move on, but advise my reporter to take his job seriously. Besides I love articles / stories like these, hell even the guy making the ISIS speech wasn't offended in the slightest so why should I?

That is fair. I'm just assuming that getting called out and even ending up being caught on camera (essentially) and that going viral may at least mean he won't be going to anymore press briefings. I am not saying the guy should lose his job, but it probably looks bad for your paper if they catch you screwing around at something that is kind of a big deal, even if it's not actually big news at the moment.

 

[Catnip1024]

Seriously, though, what sort of person thinks it's okay to waste time on things like that in any meeting in any job? If you're sat a desk in your office, sure, maybe, but in the middle of a crowded room full of cameras?

They should drop crates of smartphones loaded with Pokemon Go on ISIS territory. Get everyone playing games and stop shooting each other.

they would just use the smart phones to trigger bombs.

Voltorb used self-destruct.

 

[Frostbyte666]

they would just use the smart phones to trigger bombs.

Voltorb used self-destruct.

I can't stop myself....It's super effective

In seriousness, yeah I would either fire or suspend that guy, doesn't matter if the briefings boring or not relevant in that meeting you are the face of the company and you act professionally. The amount of times I've wanted to say in a meeting I'm an engineer I deal with how a building stays up, I don't give a damn what colour furniture you want, your wasting my time and yours please let me go and do some actual work.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Can you blame a guy for drifting off?

His editor has every right to.

 

[Elijin]

Please, like people don't use their smartphones in settings like this and meetings all the time. Pok?mon Go is just the flavour of the month, and this guy getting called out on it makes it 'news'.

The only problem here is someone did a bad job at being discreet. I would have immediately played it off as checking an email or using a Dictaphone or any one of the possible reasons to be using a smart phone at a conference. I kind of wish that was what he was doing, and the spokesperson just ended up looking like an ass thinking phone = pokemon.

 

[Lightspeaker]

To be fair, though, those briefings sound more like an advertisement/marketing speech, than actually briefings on the geopolitical ongoings in the world. You hear one you've heard them all. Can you blame a guy for drifting off?

I'm not an American citizen, nor do I like to have anything to do with their useless politics but this is just an f'ing joke. It's a stupid bloody game with pretend pokemon in it. There's a proper time and place for stuff like that. These guys are supposed to professionals and they're supposed to be discussing ways of dealing with these scumbag Isis filth, yet the braindead idiots are sitting around playing this crap instead of actually doing anything. ffs, no wonder the world is in the current state that it is, what a goddamn joke. People bloody sicken me these days.

Er...I'm pretty sure this was a press briefing and the guy playing was a reporter. So no, he's not supposed to be sitting around discussing ways to deal with Isis. He's only there to report on the briefing back to his news agency.

That being said I can't imagine his editor is too happy.

 

[47_Ronin]

These guys are supposed to professionals and they're supposed to be discussing ways of dealing with these scumbag Isis filth, yet the braindead idiots are sitting around playing this crap instead of actually doing anything. ffs, no wonder the world is in the current state that it is, what a goddamn joke. People bloody sicken me these days.

No they are not. The guy on the podium is supposed to talk and the guys in the auditorium are supposed to listen. Nothing is supposed to be discussed at a press conference.

A bit, yeah. It's in the title. A reporter reports. That requires attention. People pay this person gather information and come back to us with it.

Just like I'd blame a security guard not focusing on his job looking for Pikachu, A cop turning off his radio so he can spend time with candy crush, or a cabbie coming late to your house making you miss your plane because there was an alert with his Mobile Strike.

Here's the transcript: We're still fighting isis STOP Trying new and faster shit STOP also on Facebook STOP Shit is tough, though, so we called our buddies to form a posse FULL STOPP
Not exactly revelatory, blink-and-you'll-miss-it information.

You guys, I only commented tong-in-cheek, don't take it so seriously.