Everybody is excited because we hear that President Obama called Kanye West a jackass after West had a Joe-Wilson-meets-Serena-Williams moment at the MTV Video Music Awards. Yeahyeahyeah, awesome. Now we don’t have to talk about real issues again for at least three or four days. I can probably take the rest of the week off.
But that is not the part of this kerhaha/broufuffle I want to indulge. No, rather, more interesting to me than what Obama said is how we know that he said it:
Obama’s colorful remark was actually made in an off-the-record portion of the interview that was tweeted — and then deleted — by ABC News reporter Terry Moran.
"Pres. Obama just called Kanye West a ‘jackass’ for his outburst at VMAs when Taylor Swift won. Now THAT’S presidential," Moran wrote.
First, if someone were going to tweet an off-the-record remark by Obama about something as inconsequential as whether the president criticized a pop star with some bland slang, it just had to be Terry—just had to be. If someone was going to then try to punctuate an ethical lapse and an empty observation with some meaningless but nasty period, then that person, too, had to be Terry. How do I know? Well, let’s just say, Terry and I go back a ways.
Second, this was a CNBC interview, so what is ABC’s Moran doing with this off-the-record info? Was Moran at the interview, too? I know I will be corrected if I am wrong, but I am going to doubt that for now. Rather, let me propose another scenario: Terry has a friend at CNBC (maybe a techie, but likely another a journalist) who told him “in confidence” (aka off-the-record) what Obama had said (and I will repeat) off-the-record. And Terry, in his usual breathless rush to impress his friends and distract a country with the selling of sizzle over anything USDA approved, tweeted; thereby breaking two confidences.
Betraying one of the most sacred of the journalistic codes by publicizing an off-the-record comment (one that is of little real news value, but one that is guaranteed to cause an uproar, to boot), and betraying the confidence of a colleague—now THAT’S professional.
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This was also my first thought. Strange story. Looks like Terry’s a “leaned” journalist. Either that or a hit-job “artist.”
This’ll be all over now (notice HuffPo immediately puts it as the massive frontpage article), and will serve as a bright shiny object, so few people talk about the financial industry and healthcare reforms Obama’s trying to focus upon. Mission accomplished for Terry, I guess…
Whatta moran.
First, why is this report assumed to be true?
Second, if Obama actually DID say that he was 100% accurate, so “so what”?
What happened to the Meet The Press standard that everything is off the record if it’s your bread n’ butter? Oh, right, that’s not for the rational party.
You thought Moran would do anything less. Digby has been saying that D.C. journos are like the Kool Kidz in H.S. Gossipy to the core. We’ll see if Moran will resign. I doubt it. That “librul” media strikes again!!
Republicans *are* Assholes.
Pass it forward. Let’s push the Van Jones Window.
most sacred of the journalistic codes
now that IS funny
I know this comment is going to cement me firmly in old-fartdom, but I really hate twitter… you know… for twits.
Twitter is driving journalism, and I use that term lightly, right into the crapper with it’s explosion of gossip and innuendo from undocumented sources and snipers. The tweets are usually stupid and vacuous, or designed to lead the sheep off every available cliff when deployed by politicians and their commandos in the field. Yea, lets give every moran ( sic) a personal megaphone and then let the news media treat tweets like the AP wire… smart.
Wow, amazing how often protocol is being broken lately…eh?
His press pass should be revoked, at least from the Executive branch.
Funny how so much off-the-record crime spree was allowed over the last 8 years. Big suprise.
Oh, and I think this helps Obama (other then the media message which is critical).
One nice thing is that he essentially got to call Joe Wilson a jackass since he pulled the same stupid move.
The twits in the MSM do not have enough mental accumen to perform their job since they don’t understand the concept of reporting.
Yet, shooting someone in the face is, well, vice presidential.
The leaker to Moran should be fired because the President is now in a position to never provide another interview to CNBC due to the off the record violation. The leaker to Moran is a liability to CNBC.
I think “jackass” was an understated response for the situation. Quite the myopic country we are living in right now. Are there really THAT many grown youth out there who had parents incapable of saying, “No!” and failing their children in teaching manners and protocol?
Our MSM seems to follow the “E” gossip model instead of a true news reporting model
I’m forgetting when we got that hilarious shot used above. Wasn’t it during the campaign? The only detail which would make it a better image would be if the t-shirt said McCain/Palin.
That’s so ten minutes ago. The MSM is now comporting itself on the TMZ model.
Well Stossel went to FAUX “News” because ABC wasn’t wingnutty enough, maybe Moran will go to The National Enquirer because ABC is gossipy enough. Truly, I had the same take away from this episode. Obama can’t trust the traditional media who have all worked hard to discredit him since he upset Clinton’s bid for president. They also have gone after her for having the temerity for proving them wrong and not entering into a bitter grudge war with Obama. Why anybody still pays attention to any of them is beyond me.
LOL! (I almost typed TMZ!)
I failed at my attempt of epicness today!
especially since its being front-paged on prominent “progressive” blogs like FDL!
Exactly. They are in desperation mode. Notice how the pitch is rising?
Bowtruckles!
I just want to add that Serena was a jackass, too.
Christy’s got a post up (Tortured Logic: Dangers Of The Slippery Slope), but almost no one went there to read it. Or, at least didn’t comment. Show’s you what people really care about, doesn’t it?
Saw all this soma shit coming when I first heard of “People” magazine. And who the hell is Kanye West? No, don’t tell me. I don’t care.
Christy’s blog software is too dysfunctional. You have to complain till your blue in the mouth before anything gets done about it.
You cannot be serious! There are some glitches, like you have to refresh every once in a while. How f’ing hard is that? You can’t use edit? Again, it’s called read before you hit submit. And, you have to scroll to read a previous comment.
I’m stunned. Truly.
There’s just one thing..does Tweety tweet? If he does use Twitter does that make him a twit? just thinking..
Everybody like him when this went down
It was John McEnroe who said that, not Serena.
While I agree that Serena was a Jackass and so was Kanye, I’m curious as to what you would call John McEnroe? Or Roger Federer who cured at one of the sideline judges? Perhaps, we should get back to politics. Oh, and the huffingon post’s giant front page headline is pathetic but, many of us have been complaining about that for months!
Yeah, his press pass should be revoked, but remember this is a Democratic administration, ergo, no balls. I am sure that the administration wants to continue to attempt some bipartisanship with another coequal branch of the Government, THE PRESS.
I would hope, at the least, that they would not call on ANY ABC correspondents in any of the briefings. But, I am sure they will give ABC an exclusive so Obama can apologize to them for insulting their sensibilities and forcing them to publicize this information.
How many tweets would a tweety tweet if a tweety could tweet tweets?
I hope Jane does a post on the new poll showing 2/3 of doctors support a public option. THAT is on topic.
Kanye West, not so much.
I find myself wanting to throw Ashleigh Banfield’s case in front of all these people. Just ask them, why was Banfield fired again? How was she worse than you? Of course, you’d never get an answer, but maybe it’d make the horrible little fuckers think for a second.
AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…
Citizen Gregg Levine and the Firepup Freedom Fighters:
This is NOT gunna go anywhere and it is decidedly NOT gunna change anythin’ in the fight over healthcare reform or regulating the financial services industry…both those issues are decided already. The fascists have learned that the trivialization of politics and journalism is comin back to bite ‘em in the ass. Reality is the great political leveler and while the corporate oligarchy is tryin’ ta get a do-over for the 2008 election their real aim is to try and set the table back to 1933 when they almost got America to follow Germany into hell…same tactics, same rhetoric and the only thing that has changed is that the American taxpayer is payin for the Brown Shirts.
KEEP THE FAITH AND PAAS THE AMMUNITION, FASCISM WILL NOT GO AWAY BY ITSELF!!!
It’s so much easier for Moran to do this than to, say, report honestly about health care reform.
I perceived Serena’s behavior as part of a continuum of antics she tends to pull when things are not going her way on the big-time court. I’m glad Clijsters made it through the finals. Quite the comeback.
Not going her way? It was match point.
Citizen Raven:
It ain’t about a celebrity or a celebrity smack down or a self-immolation over a fuckin’ music award, Brother Raven…it’s about the truth and of course the truth is always relevant. What a fuckin’ waste of time…and I’m too old ta play so give a shit for me there Freebird.
Maybe we should not waste our time. Hi you.
someone wanted to know who he was, I couldn’t give a fuck less about any of it
yoo hoo
I’ve never heard of Kanye West, have zero idea who s/he is or what s/he does. Sounds like it’s a jackass, though, which makes me ask why would I care if someone called it right? As for Moran, problem obvious.
You’ll never believe this, (snark), but the first time I was modded here was about three years ago when I first visited the Lake. I said it seemed like a total circle j. bam!
will the circle, be unbroken. . . .
Sounds like an offhand, off-the-record Obama remark that was relayed via gossip and then Twittered. I too reveal my age as someone who hates not only Twitter but also Facebook, etc. As for journalistic ethics, I am sure Walter Cronkite was aghast during the Bush administration and is now rolling over in his grave. And regarding the remark itself, who could disagree? Even West seemed genuinely contrite and said he wanted to apologize to Taylor Swift in person. And he should, but in private, not all over the information superhighway. There are more important things for this nation to address.
Kanye West is a jackass. And, maybe Obama wanted it on the record, because no doubt the likes of Glen Beck would blame him for West’s embarrassing tantrum anyway, and yet, maybe Obama knows he can not give the incident on the record Presidential attention. So, who cares if it was on or off the record? Obama was right and I doubt he cares if people know he said it.
By and by..
I have such an entirely different read of this whole matter. It appears obvious to me that President Obama wanted this info out there. He used Moran as the avenue.
Moran’s statement that THAT is presidential appears to be a sincere statement. In other word’s he’s giving President Obama chops for calling it as he sees it.
In other words, President Obama used Moran to Sister Souljah West.
-G
Wingnut, the Gathering.
-G
Why does POTUS allow this Moran to travel with him?
I hate to do it but I have to agree with you on this one.
I can’t believe that I’m reading in Firedoglake about the sanctity of “off the record”. It reminds me of Old Pumpkinhead testifying about how he never reports anything his betters don’t approve of.
So Obama called Kanye (justifiably) a jackass, and word got out. BFD. Don’t go on about how the courtiers violated the court rules.
Likewise, people are shocked, shocked, that the president was heckled in Congress. It happens all the time in the British Parliament. The guy who screamed “you lie!” was himself lying, which is the real offense, but to the Village, the only offenses are offenses against decorum.
I agree 100%.
Seconding the “off-the-record” – nothing is off the record to the American public; we have a right to know.
We all know that real journalists like late Tim Russert hold everything they hear in confidence unless the interviewee expressly gives them permission to use their name and/or what they say. They also wait for people to call or come to them; shoe leather, Italian hand-made loafers at any rate, are expensive and not to be worn on cement pavements. So Terry broke two other rules, too.
At least those are Village “journalist” rules for Republican politicians and leakers. Democrats? No holds barred.
Obama seems unlikely to wake up and smell the roses. When will his retainers and the supposed Democrats on the Hill hear the alarums?
I’m utterly confused. This “jackass” comment is the best thing we’ve seen from Obama, and yet the liberal blogosphere seems unable to comprehend that.
Milk it, guys. I bet you his approval ratings start to reverse their decline…
We comprehend it. If he acted on that belief, rather than used it as a throwaway, we’d be happier. The story discussed here, though, is the journalistic ethics displayed by Terry Moran and the weak gruel that passes for news in the MSM.
It definitely helps Obama. Most everyone thinks Kanye was being a jackass at the VMA’s so it’s just a reflection of what everyone was thinking, not controversial. Plus, Obama took the side of the White girl over the Black guy. That won’t matter to the true die-hards, but to some it does. My family is full of wingnuts and some of them have actually expressed surprise that Obama would see it that way. One of them was unwilling to accept my argument that Beck was a moron for claiming a guy raised by White people hates White people but now is starting to question Beck a little more. Every little bit counts.
Terry was made into a star on Court TV by that genius Steve Brill (who also gave the world Nancy Grace). He hosted a show called “Prime Time Justice” and was eventually shown the door…glad to see he hasn’t learned much about journalmalism since those days…
Hey – Did you know that Terry’s brother Rick runs a Righty- Blog – rightwingnuthouse.com?
Rick Moran is a good writer, believe it or not – but super-dishonest. This guy bends the truth like a pretzel for his frothing wing nut readers. It must be really hard to do that everyday…
I can’t go there anymore. I was banned because called rick out on something or other…
The media is full of five year olds.
Actually it’s all going to make Obama look good…in the end.
Kanye West a jackass. Obama didn’t lie…this time.
The audio
http://www.tmz.com/2009/09/15/…..a-jackass/
The audio clip has now been leaked. The lack of respect offered to this president is absolutely appalling.
Journalism has been in the crapper for decades, tweets are just the gurgling sound that signifies the end of the flush.