'Jackass' Comment Stolen

I hesitate to bring up this topic again, there are obviously much more pressing matters in politics these days over Obama’s opinion of Kanye West. What is relevant to our class however is how the “off-the-record” comment became public. According to the Columbia Journalism Review, CNBC was doing the interview but someone at ABC snagged the pre-interview small talk from a live wire shared by Bloomberg, NBC and ABC. Apparently this is an unwritten no-no among the networks. So, is this a question of disrespect, bad judgment (on ABC's part) or unethical journalism considering the President was the main subject?

http://www.cjr.org/transparency/pinning_down_the_jackass_tale.php