As reporters were glued to their Twitter feeds, watching to see if President Obama's breaking news would leak, Reuters Deputy Social Media Editor Matthew Keys discovered an online news story url.
"ABC News may have accidentally leaked Obama gay marriage announcement," he tweeted at 2:50 p.m., "See URL slug."
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/video/obama-sex-marriage-legal-16312940#.T6q58Atfp9Q.twitter
"As someone who used to work at ABC, I can tell you the URL slug structure looks valid. Video ID would be '16312940'" Keys added on Twitter.
ABC replaced the URL with a new page featuring a headline: Obama: 'Same-sex Marriage Should Be Legal," a headline that was widely shared on Twitter as ABC had yet to air their breaking news special. The headline included a subtext: "President says his position on marriage has evolved.
The interview was conducted this afternoon at the White House, whereupon ABC News announced a special report that would air at 3:00 p.m. According to reports, ABC News reporters were instructed not to tweet the news ahead of time.
Of course many expected that Obama's position on marriage had 'evolved' in advance of the ABC News Special Report, but its a fun exercise in news scoops in today's digital world.
