Reporter files FOIA Request for President Obama's 'Game of Thrones' screeners
Winter isn't coming soon enough for one journalist.
After hearing that President Barack Obama will receive early screeners of the upcoming season 6 of Game of Thrones, Refinery29's Vanessa Golembewski decided to put matters into her own hands.
On Friday, Golembewski filed a Freedom of Information Act request asking that the leader of the free world "share his advance screeners" with the public.
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It may have been Golembewski's first FOIA request, but she clearly wasn't messing around.
She said she would pay "$0" for the information. And if they did want to charge her, she said the government should put it on her student loan tab.
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"I know it's a stretch. Firstly, I'm not entirely sure where the Game of Thrones screeners fall in the grey area that is personal property of a government figure,"Golembewski wrote in a Refinery29 article. "Secondly, there's a bunch of red tape around the kinds of things you can request in a FOIA. Okay, fine. There are just nine exemptions — and all of them seem like really fair calls. For example, it's off limits if the information in question would threaten our national security. I felt confident that even with these rules, TV episodes were still fair game."
Her request comes after HBO said it will not share screeners with journalists ahead of the April 24 season 6 launch.
The network has been very secretive about the upcoming season (perhaps because everyone has been prying about whether Jon Snow is really dead).
But showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss told reporters on the red carpet of the premiere last week that Obama -- a fan of the series -- will indeed get a sneak peak.
Golembewski is currently tracking her FOIA request (GSA-2016-000633, in case you were wondering), a process she compared to waiting for pizza after ordering online from Dominos.
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Topics Game Of Thrones HBO
Saba was a Los Angeles-based reporter who covers all things digital entertainment, including YouTube, streaming services and digital influencers. Prior to that, she spent two years at the Los Angeles Times covering entertainment for the Calendar and Company Town sections. Saba grew up in Santa Monica and graduated from Boston University with a B.S. in journalism and B.A. in political science. When not reporting, she is usually binge watching shows online or looking for new coffee shops to frequent.
