During a news break on CNN’s “The Situation Room,” a press release from Congresswoman Jane Harman arrives in the e-mail inbox of Senior Executive Producer Sam Feist at exactly 4:17 p.m. In the release, Harman denounces the National Security Agency’s tracking of phone calls in the United States, made public in a recent USA Today story.

Feist, sitting in one of two control rooms needed for “The Situation Room,” wants to get Harman’s release on the air immediately and tells host Wolf Blitzer. Blitzer is in the studio down the hallway, sitting at his laptop in a corner of the set and checking e-mail and breaking news. After hearing Feist’s pitch through his ear piece, Blitzer concurs and says that they should push back the next planned story coming out of the break in order to make room for the Harman release.