Pokemon Go has become a national obsession. A State Department reporter got called out for playing the game in what may be the most embarrassing way possible – in the middle of a briefing on U.S. efforts to fight the Islamic State.
U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby stopped mid-briefing to call out the unnamed reporter for checking the app during the briefing. The reporter said he was “just checking” the app – so, in his defense, it’s not as if he were positioning a Pikachu at the podium with his smartphone camera.
Then Kirby brought it up again, before taking questions on his statement. “Did you get one?” Kirby asked. “No,” the reporter replied. (The video doesn’t show his face, but one can only assume his face was as red and hot as the flame on a Charmander’s tail.)
“The signal is not very good,” the reporter added, by way of explanation. Well, we’ve certainly all been there. And you could certainly understand why players are accelerating their efforts in the game, now that at least one man has publicly announced he has, per the franchise’s famous tagline, caught them all.
It’s not the first time that someone’s been caught playing games on their phone during what should be serious business. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., was notably captured playing smartphone poker during a congressional hearing on Syria in 2013.
