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Kanye West attends a Louis Vuitton in Paris in 2008. On Sunday, West interrupted Taylor Swift's acceptance speech at the MTV Video Music Awards. Later, President Barack Obama questioned West's behavior.
Moral of Obama, Kanye incident? Nothing is off the record anymore.
By Matthew Shaer | 09.16.09
What began on Sunday as a snafu – Kanye West interrupting Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the MTV Video Music Awards – has escalated into a Web-wide conversation on the usefulness of Twitter and the state of presidential politics in the YouTube age.
First, some back-story: On Monday, just as discussion of the West/Swift incident was really getting started, President Barack Obama sat for an interview with CNBC. Quite reasonably, Obama assumed anything he said was off the record. So when asked about West, Obama dispensed a short critique of the rapper’s behavior.
“I thought that was really inappropriate. It was like, she was getting an award, why are you butting in? I hear you,” Obama said to a small group of reporters. “I agree with you. The young lady seems like a perfectly nice person, she’s getting her award, what is he doing up there?”
Next, he offered up a sobriquet not fit for print in a family publication. “Cut the president some slack,” Obama joked a few seconds later, perhaps worried the press would run with the remarks. “I’ve got a lot of other stuff on my plate,” he said.
But ABC reporter Terry Moran, who was apparently listening in on the feed, did not cut the president any slack.
Instead, he took to Twitter and relayed to the whole wide world the exact phrase Obama had used. “Now THAT’S presidential,” Moran tweeted. A handful of media outlets immediately picked up on the tweet, and a full-scale media kerfuffle ensued; eventually, Obama’s remarks on West made it as far as CNN.
And just as quickly, ABC News went into recovery mode. First, the offending tweet was yanked down. And then on Tuesday, ABC News President David Westin reminded his staff to follow appropriate social networking protocol. Finally, ABC News spokesman Jeffrey Schneider issued a public apology.
“There should be a very dark, easily understood line between material that is approved, vetted and published, and material that has yet to reach that standard,” Schneider said. “The message to our employees is very clear: If it’s approved and published, then people can tweet it or share it on Facebook…. Prior to that happening, the information is not to be shared.”
So what can we get out of the whole debacle? Well, for one, nothing is off the record anymore. Not in the age of Twitter and YouTube, when information can zip from one end to the blogosphere to the other faster than you can says “Google.” You thought the 24-hour news cycle was bad? Try the hyper-accelerated Twitter cycle.
To accommodate this new insatiable cycle, we may start seeing politicians and public figures clamming up when it comes to talking off the record. And that would be a shame. As David Jackson of USA Today notes, “It helps to talk to people in a more relaxed state, and to have a more natural conversation; you learn things that can be helpful later.”
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2. Dana | 09.16.09
Well I completley agree with the President and everyone else who has called him names for interupting her This was her time and it definatley was not his time to butt in anywhere!!!
3. gddctr | 09.16.09
Why would we cut these jokers any slack. Every single politician at his level for the past 20 years has been bought and sold years before they even reach the House/Senate/Courtroom or White House.
“Long Live America! America is dead!”
4. Patrick | 09.16.09
On, or off the record, who cares? Presidential? Maybe not, but certainly human. He spoke the truth of Kanye, and stood up for the girl.
Really… All he said was Kanye was a jackass. Is Kanye NOT a jackass? Republican, or Democrat, I’m pretty sure that most everybody belives he’s a jackass. Obama was prompted for it, spoke the truth, and called Kanye out. So what?
5. L Mason | 09.16.09
Last I checked, the President was a human and is more than likely going to blurt like the rest of us. I wonder if someone would have quoted FDR as saying that?
6. Amanda | 09.16.09
I completely agree with Patrick. I don’t agree with a lot of what President Obama does, but Kanye definitely deserved that comment. After all the stunts he’s pulled, I think everyone can agree that Kanye West is definitely a huge jackass.
7. George | 09.16.09
So, why can’t you print what the President actually said. He called Kanye a Jack *** Instead, you write that the President, “offered up a sobriquet not fit for print in a family publication”…That is so very lame Matthew.
The media feels such a need to protect and enhance President Obama…
8. pge | 09.16.09
People no longer feel constrained by respecting established conventions, including common decency. Such behaviors will continue until such individuals pay a ‘price’ for their behaviors. Simple apologies are insufficient - they lack any meaning. It seems that today’s society condones, if not rewards such behaviors. If societal norms are indeed changing than so be it. It just seems sad!
10. bill reith | 09.16.09
….and the immediate losers will be the reporters who can’t get ‘off the record’ comments as easily. Lets hope they all call that fellow up and thank him for that.
11. Emma | 09.16.09
Johnson had a pretty foul moth, and Bush is said to have made a few unprintable remarks in his time too. We don’t need to know about that,really, we don’t want to know,and it isn’t healthy for a person to constantly guard themselves from being human for fear of the David Morans of the world.The press up to this point generally understands the difference between off the record and official remarks,and respects that line.Before Jennifer Flowers the press also kept presidents and senators pecadilloes out of the newspaper too. Frankly, that wasn’t a bad idea either.
12. fakchkr | 09.17.09
gddctr:
Please list specific examples and cite references to support your claim. Please be thorough, as the phrase “every single politician at his level” covers a lot of ground. Also, please explain the basis for the sobriquet, “jokers.”
Thank you.
13. xk | 09.17.09
The President of the United States should NEVER be considered off the record in any public or media setting, on any issue at any time for any reason.
14. Seth | 09.17.09
“Quite reasonably, Obama assumed anything he said was off the record”
Actually, that’s not a reasonable at all. As a former broadcast news assignment editor I can tell you first hand that unless you request to be off the record prior to talking with the reporter, everything is included up for grabs. Obama said something off the cuff and wanted to retroactively go off the record, but the media has no responsibility to honor such a request.
Should CNBC have honored that request anyways? Probably, but that is there choice.
I’m shocked by how many reporters who write about this incident fail to understand how the process of going off the record works.
15. buzzcowboy | 09.17.09
an open mic is always open… especially nowadays.
on the upside, kanye has helped obama unite the country for a change: http://bit.ly/W4ieV
17. Cornell | 09.17.09
How come no one ever seems to remember some beauts Cheney was known for muttering: like “Go F— yourself”? The Web-wide populace should have recognized that his coarseness spoke volumes about his condescending attitudes towards most people.
18. Kermonk | 09.17.09
You gotta be kidding- you have problem with the word “jackass” ?
How old are you?
How about growing up and getting over a totally harmless word.
19. Duude | 09.17.09
First of all, most everything worthwhile is off the record. ABC knows this all too well. They’ve done a fine job blocking any mention of radical leftist Obama appointed czars resigning due to their statements and radical views. ABC also knows its best to hide the fact that Town hall meetings this Summer weren’t Republican stationed operatives but rather Mom and Pops who were deeply worried for good reason that their Medicare was in danger. Nevertheless, ABC did a fine job lying their butts off about the truth. ABC also did a terrific job blocking EVERY single Presidential blunder which is quite a feat considering they broadcasted EVERY Presidential blunder under Bush. On slow weeks, they made some up, or rebroadcast the lamest stories they could dredge up. ABC also did a fantastic job covering for Dan Rather’s shoddy reporting that led to his forced retirement later. Dan isn’t even an ABC reporter, but he’s a liberal brother in arms. ABC has also done a fantastic job not reporting on the ever larger list of Democrats with pending ethics charges against them, or unscrupulous operating methods not seen before in any Congress that didn’t later lead to charges, censure, or a reprimand? What about Charlie Rangel, Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Stoney, and all the other players? They’d rather replay older stories about corrupt Republicans. My point is this story is absolutely misleading, and utterly ridiculous.
20. Joanie | 09.19.09
First of all I am a republican and didn’t vote for Obama. But I am proud to call him my president all the same. Good for him for saying it like it is. Kanye was a jackass and many other names which I shall refrain from typing. Black, White, Brown, Yellow, I don’t care what color you are, have some class.
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1. karl anglin | 09.16.09
Every thing some one says
can now be quoted. The press
media no longer believes in
cutting any public figure slack.