Twitter sometimes usurps White House press corps

WASHINGTON, July 1 (UPI) -- The White House Correspondents' Association says it is examining the ethics of pool reporters tweeting news before giving it to other reporters.

A pool reporter travels with the president and has the responsibility of sending regular news reports to the rest of the White House press corps before releasing it to his own news organization, but the temptation to release information before other reporters get it is tempting, Politico reported.

The issue has come to the forefront in recent months as more reporters use Twitter -- and some admit they've scooped their colleagues at times.

"The main problem with Twitter is that you're essentially breaking news publicly before anyone else in the press corps can get hold of your reporting. So it's great when it's your day to pool but less so all the other days that it's not," said Daniel Stone, a White House reporter for Newsweek and the Daily Beast.

Sam Youngman, a White House reporter for The Hill, was the pool reporter recently when U.S. President Barack Obama golfed with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

"It's tempting to be the first person to tweet the result of the [golf] round, but you gotta wait for the pool report to hit," Youngman said. "Otherwise, it's cheating."

"As a board member, I've heard some complaints about it, and people have raised issues" about using social media during pool duty, said Caren Bohan, the incoming WHCA president.