Rhonda Schwartz
The Blotter
Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Once again flouting decades of tradition, Internet maverick Matt Drudge broke the gentleman's agreement last night between the White House and the Washington press corps by posting the full text of the president's State of the Union address 40 minutes before it was delivered.

"The days of the button-down, follow-the-rules White House press corps are long over," American University Journalism Professor Alicia Shepard told ABC News.

As is customary, the advance text of the president's speech was delivered to major news organizations at 8:21 p.m. last night with the instructions, "EMBARGOED – this cannot be used until delivery at 9:01:30PM EDT." But within minutes, Matt Drudge posted the full text on his popular news Web site "The Drudge Report."

When ABC News' Ann Compton notified the White House Press Office of the Drudge posting, her call was returned with the instructions, "Do what you have to do." The White House did not officially lift the embargo, but Compton says, "They knew the horse was already out of the barn."

"The Internet, as we all know, changes everything. The only way the White House can punish Drudge -- or any reporters who don't follow the embargo protocol -- is to deny them access. Matt Drudge does just fine without a White House press pass," said Professor Shepard.

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It is not known how Drudge obtained his advance copy of the State of the Union address last night, but "embargoed" copies of the president's speeches are distributed to a list of several hundred in addition to the White House Press Corps.

Earlier this month, Drudge also broke the embargo on the president's Iraq War speech.

Drudge didn't respond to requests for comment from ABC News this morning but recently has been heard to boast on his Sunday night radio show, "That's what we do here at the Drudge Report. We break embargoes."

Concerning the broken embargo, the White House told ABC News, "We have thousands of people on our distribution list, and it's hard police the embargo."

As for whether they will no longer be e-mailing advanced copies of speeches, they have "nothing to announce right now."