Big Fat Story
It was a tough start to the week for ABC News’ Terry Moran, who sent out a note on the online service Twitter, reporting that President Barack Obama had called Kanye West a “jackass.” On Sunday night, West upstaged Taylor Swift at the MTV Video Music Awards when he rushed the stage and prevented the pop singer from accepting an award. Unfortunately for Moran—and the president—the “jackass” comment was part of an off-the-record portion of an interview that Obama did with another network. An ABC News spokesperson told Politico that Moran “prematurely tweeted ... before our editorial process had been completed. That was wrong.” Apologies went all around, in the end, as the rapper went onto Jay Leno’s new show to say he was sorry for his own antics.
Prez gets tipsy, tells reporters what he really thinks.
"Newsmen probably won't write about it," the St. Peterburg Times warned in September 1946, but some of President Harry S Truman's "supposedly most trusted news friends let him down." Truman was acting "aloof" toward the press after some off-the-record chitchat made it into the papers. "Several weeks ago the president invited the boys to an evening on the yacht… They played poker, drank bourbon and generally let their hair down—especially the president. He was indiscreet enough to tell all about the Russian situation and what he thought of Chester Bowles—then OPA administrator... Truman minced no words about either Bowles or the Russians and it was hard to say which he liked the least." Truman grew nervous after his words traveled to Russia.
Samantha Power must now work closely with Hillary Clinton as a senior director at the National Security Council—an arrangement that must be pretty uncomfortable, given what transpired between the two of them in March 2008. Power, then an adviser to Barack Obama, told the Scotsman that Clinton was “a monster, too—that is off the record—she is stooping to anything.” Why did the Scotsman publish the comment if it was off the record? “Sometimes, public figures say something and then attempt to retract it by insisting it was ‘off the record’ after the event,” the Scotsman wrote, justifying its decision to publish. “But by then it is too late, particularly if it is in the public interest that the story be published.” Weighing in, Slate said, “Some editors may argue that since Power tried to go off record midsentence, it was essentially the same as if she had made the request before calling Clinton a monster.” At the time, Power was forced to resign from her post in the Obama campaign.
When Politics and Candor Collide
Obama said it off the record, but his branding of Kanye West as a “jackass” went public. It wasn’t the first time a Washington power player’s whisper became an unwelcome soundbyte.
PLUS: Listen to Obama calling Kanye a "jackass."
When President John F. Kennedy told some jokes to a group of Washington newsmen at the Gridiron Club dinner in 1962, his comments were off the record. But newswomen, who were excluded, did not consider themselves bound by the rule. The Washington Post’s Dorothy McCardle cornered the men who attended the event, got them to tell her Kennedy’s jokes, and then published them, thereby putting his comments on the record. Thankfully for Kennedy, nothing he said was too randy: Denying that he would aid his brother Ted’s Massachusetts Senate primary, he said, “We’re not sending in any troops, just a few training missions”; of his sister-in-law, he said it’s not true that “we’re going to change the name of Lafayette Square to Radziwill Square—at least, not during my first term”; of Jackie’s recent trip, he said, “I know my Republican friends were glad to see my wife feeding an elephant in India. She gave him sugar and nuts. But of course the elephant wasn’t satisfied.”
In the heat of his battle against Hillary Clinton to secure the Democratic nomination, Barack Obama attended a San Francisco fundraiser. There he suggested that working-class anger explained why his campaign was struggling to get working-class votes in some regions—a statement that reverberated online and throughout the campaign, when it was posted to Huffington Post. Presumably, he thought his comments wouldn’t leave the room where they were delivered. "It's not surprising then they get bitter," Obama said. "They cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations." Clinton seized the opportunity, saying "Sen. Obama's remarks are elitist and they are out of touch.” Despite the concern that his comments would sink him in Pennsylvania, where they were directed, Obama won 54 percent of the vote there in November.
George W. Bush, then a governor from Texas keen on winning the presidency, greeted crowds in Naperville, Illinois. He waved from the stage and turned to his running mate Dick Cheney. Bush saw a familiar face in the audience, that of Adam Clymer, now a Daily Beast contributor, who had been covering politics for The New York Times since 1977. “There’s Adam Clymer—major league asshole—from The New York Times,” Bush said. “Yeah, big time,” Cheney replied. Unfortunately for the White House hopefuls, a microphone inches from Bush’s mouth picked up their comments. In its own account of the incident, the Times refrained from using the a-word. Karen Hughes, the 2000 Bush campaign director of communications, explained her boss’s name-calling: “There’s a series of articles that the governor has felt have been very unfair.”
Granite
Shame on you Daily Beast for omitting one of the biggest blunders of international proportion!
"My fellow Ameicans I'm pleased to tell you I just signed legislation which outlaws Russia forever. The bombing begins in five minutes." --Ronald Reagan 1984.
hamage
After reading these it seems to me these politicians would come across as less elitist and more honest and in touch if they just spoke off the record. Obama right on both, Bush also correct, Reagan making a joke and Truman saying what everyone else thinks out loud and not all fluffy and pretty, who knows about Sam Power but by looking at Hilary for the last 15 years well ...
jst4horses
I think you are so right.
If everyone just was themselves, we would be so much better off than trying to find people who are super perfects. I wonder about anyone who wanders about life holding it all in. Including Wilson, he should be admonished, is an embarassment to us, the Republican Party, but still, he said what was on his mind.
We spend so much time yakking about what he said, maybe one media would look at the issues and see what the heck it was he was talking about.
I think we have to create a work system, such as Bush once tried to discuss, where aliens can pay and come and go home, and have their own insurance, just as most countries have for tourists and alien workers.
Kanye has said he is OK with what happened, so let's move on. For a guy who says everything in the world in his music, what is a little Jackass?
dana64
OBAMA was criticized for taking the side of PROf GATES vs the BOSTON police.......so he just has to be able to criticize Kanye....
SO , I hope people see that jackass is even worse that the previous arresting GATES was stupid.
sophia5
Talk about making a mountain out of a molehill.
Calling Kanye a Jackass is irrelevant.
A non story if not for 24/7 cable news chatter.
nickmagoo
kanye WAS a jackass, so what's the BFD?
ambientlite
Come on - this is pure stagecraft. Obama & ABC are perfectly happy to have arranged this so-called 'leak'. No downside for Obama - except that this is so transparently manipulative.
spinozai
Mr. President I know you just got recorded calling Kanye a jackass and Imma let you finish but I just want to say that California State Assemblyman Michael Duvall had the greatest hot-mic scandal of the last week.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2GKqTeBlAg&feature=related
sophieozz
He's plain speaking. I like it.
sonofloud
Did you hear Kanye West showed up at Patrick Swazyes funeral and shouted "Michael Jacksons funeral was better" ?
jst4horses
Is that supposed to be a joke?
I had to go mail something, now I have to go off and waste my time googling to see if you are saying something that really happened, or joking.
I need to stop this gossip columning, but it is fun actually.
after-pre
Straight guys always complain when their favorite diva loses a music video award.
Nice dated haircut from 12-15 years ago, Kayne. That crowd (The Jay-Z, Whitehouse jet set) has a bit of an attitude problem, Chris Brown beats his girl until a prison term, Kayne attacks photographers and award winners, etc...
A bunch of really creative winners- with the Soft Cell and Michael Jackson's samples in Rihanna's singles, or Kayne's Issey Miyake suits. See they think they have some superior style or trend setting intelligence- but however the 80's look was fashioned in 1999-2000- they caught on 4-5 years later, after the advent of "new" electro and German dance music.
West is a serious closet case, with burgeoning career as a photo stylist- although the art school drop out, hates being associated as "gay" so he insulted homo's to keep his ever so illustrious image, form fitting and packaged. And be careful- he's volatile and a dangerous spender.
Gosh MTV sure is interesting- they had an award show for the 20 music video's they play all year long. Alot of people think West is a moron- their are multitudes of talented producers, none of which need to be on T.V. or commercialize art in order convince people they are gifted.
I guess Kayne discovered Warhol and new wave music a few years back- how interesting.
sophia5
Obama calling Kanye a Jackass is appropriate
and in the grand scheme, NOT relevant.
Thank you.
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