Journo Files FOIA Request—for Obama's GoT Screeners

Why should the president get all the advance fun?
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 18, 2016 1:23 PM CDT
Journo Files FOIA Request—for Obama's GoT Screeners
This image released by HBO shows a scene from "Game of Thrones."   (HBO via AP)

Everyone's jealous that President Obama has already received advance screeners of the sixth season of Game of Thrones (the rest of us plebes have to wait till Sunday to start our viewing). But Vanessa Golembewski must really be champing at the bit to get her hands on the episodes, because she's actually filed a Freedom of Information Act request to get Obama to hand them over, she writes for Refinery29. "If the president—and by extension, our government—is in possession of a file, surely that file is subject to my request to see it as a US citizen," she reasons. So she went online to make sure her request didn't fall under the nine exceptions to the FOIA rules, decided that the urgency of Jon Snow's fate qualified her to request "expedited" processing, and pressed "Send."

Golembewski admits her inquiry is "a stretch," mainly because "I'm not entirely sure where the Game of Thrones screeners fall in the grey area that is personal property of a government figure." She also acknowledges some may find her "crazy—or at least a s----y journalist that you cannot believe is paid to do this kind of stuff." But she's keeping an eye on the status of her submission (she's able to track it online) and hoping Obama at least makes one "final cool-president [move]" that involves recapping the first couple of episodes. Check out her first FOIA experience in full. (One thing we know about Jon Snow in real life: The actor who plays him is dating the actress who played his spurned lover, Ygritte.)

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