Supreme Court Health Care Ruling Prompts Foot Race In Press Corps

By Scott Hensley

Published June 29, 2012 at 9:37 AM CDT

1 of 7 — Reporters sprint from the Supreme Court after a majority of the justices upheld the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act.

Reporters sprint from the Supreme Court after a majority of the justices upheld the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act.

2 of 7 — She's got the decision in hand.

She's got the decision in hand.

3 of 7 — He's eating her dust.

He's eating her dust.

4 of 7 — Here come's another bunch. They look serious.

Here come's another bunch. They look serious.

5 of 7 — Let's hear it for sensible shoes!

Let's hear it for sensible shoes!

6 of 7 — There's no way they'll catch the woman in the white dress.

There's no way they'll catch the woman in the white dress.

7 of 7 — In the home stretch.

In the home stretch.

There were winners and losers in the journalistic race to get out the news of the Supreme Court's momentous ruling upholding the administration's health care law Thursday.

If this had been the Olympics, CNN and Fox News would have been called for false starts, or worse, after initially reporting that the high court had struck down the law. Public radio talk show host Diane Rehm got it wrong, too, during her Thursday show, although the NPR network's newscasts were correct, NPR's David Folkenflik reported.

The gold would have gone to Bloomberg News, at least according to the organization's PR people, who trumpeted a 24-second advantage over the Associated Press. Folkenflik tweeted that Bloomberg "got it first (and right)" followed seconds later by Reuters, AP and then Dow Jones.

But for my money, the real winners were the journalists who raced, literally, to get the decision out of the court as fast as humanly possible. Check out the slideshow for proof of their athletic prowess.

The photographers didn't identify the runners. If you know who they are, we'd like to draft them for the next ACLI Capital Challenge.

Update 1:27 p.m.: CBS News' Norah O'Donnell identified one of the runners as Jordyn Newcome, an intern with CBS Evening News. Hat tip to Daniel Wein.

Update 6:32 p.m.: The fleet female runner in slide six and on the far left in slide seven has come forward. She is Summer Delaney, an intern at ABC News.