Call it another case of being too fast on the Twitter. The perils of dashing off observations on the micro-blogging site were brought into sharp relief Monday when several overeager ABC News employees -- including "Nightline" co-anchor Terry Moran -- rushed to tweet that President Obama had called Kanye West a "jackass" for interrupting Taylor Swift's acceptance speech Sunday at the MTV Video Music Awards. The problem: Obama made the comment during off-the-record chatter as he prepared to do an interview with John Harwood, CNBC's chief Washington correspondent. ABC News' Washington bureau shares a network fiber line with CNBC, and producers there monitoring CNBC's feed heard the exchange. What they didn't hear, apparently, was the explicit agreement CNBC made with the White House that Obama's pre-interview chitchat was off the record. The president weighing in on the biggest pop culture story of the day was too delicious to ignore. Soon, e-mails about Obama's comment began circulating internally at ABC. Before news executives had determined whether the material was publishable, Moran and a handful of other ABC News employees posted the remark on Twitter.
The more I think about it, the more I have come to believe (please note, with absolutely NO proof) that the president's comments regarding Mr. West's behaviour at the MTV VMA's were puroposely leaked, with the administration's blessing.
The comment is a perfect counter to the president's comments regarding Sgt. James Crowley's arrest of Professor Gates, reassuring his supporters (across the board, from strong to weak) that he's a reasonable man who "calls them as he sees them", while at the same time saying to his opponents (all but the most strong) that here's one thing that they all can agree on, that Mr. West is a "jackass".
The more I think about it, the more I have come to believe (please note, with absolutely NO proof) that the president's comments regarding Mr. West's behaviour at the MTV VMA's were puroposely leaked, with the administration's blessing.
The comment is a perfect counter to the president's comments regarding Sgt. James Crowley's arrest of Professor Gates, reassuring his supporters (across the board, from strong to weak) that he's a reasonable man who "calls them as he sees them", while at the same time saying to his opponents (all but the most strong) that here's one thing that they all can agree on, that Mr. West is a "jackass".
Then again, maybe I'm overthinking this.