Video Of Obama’s “Jackass” Comment Removed By Politico, Saved By CNN

updated

by Glynnis MacNicol | 2:21 pm, September 16th, 2009

» 8 comments

Politico has nabbed (not so fast! updates below) the video of President Obama‘s now infamous (image saving?) “jackass” remark. It’s a fairly jolly scene! The journalist we heard hooting in the background yesterday, turns out to be John Harwood himself, who thinks the remark in hi-larious. However, any pretense that Obama’s remark was reasonably going to be kept on the down-low is done away with when it becomes clear the President is surrounded by cameras and already miked. His look of exasperation at the room’s response is nothing if not well-practiced.

UPDATE: And now Politico appears to have removed it. Because they feel it’s off-the-record? Can it really still be considered OTR now that it’s become such a public event? Yowzer. Even Mark Knoller doesn’t seem to think the interaction can reasonably be considered off-the-record anymore. Did Politico merely chicken out? Were they on the receiving end of a phone call from the higher-higher ups? It’s hard to imagine them removing such traffic bait for any other reason. We have an email into Politico and will update when we hear back.

UPDATE 2: Politico tells us “We just felt upon reflection that it was more respectful to a fellow news-gathering operation to take it down.”

UPDATE 3: YouTube saves the day! Apparently CNN has no OTR issues with airing the video Politico scooped. You can watch it above. Original Politico link below.

barack obama, jackass, John Harwood, Politico

http://www.abramsresearch.com/ Dan Abrams

It is clear the President regretted making that comment/joke in a room full of journalists. But then again, the President of the United States made a comment in room full of journalists with cameras rolling! This was not designated as an off the record meeting and his regret, does not, in my mind, make it off limits for reporters or technically “off the record.”
ingenieux

Journalists are supposed to honor their ethical obligations to not reveal sources – which is protected by law – and off the record conversation. Apparently there are news organizations out there who felt this crossed the line otherwise they wouldn’t have pulled it from their Twitter and video feeds.

Come on, at what point so you draw the line? Because I’ll tell ya, interview subjects will not be so open after this. That moment did constitute as OTR — if Obama had some expectation of privacy and Terry Moran should have respected that. It’s shameful.
JimW

I agree with ingenieux. Journalists are “supposed” to to ethical and all, but judging from the news, they are most definitely not!
Martiniman

With today’s technology there are really no “off the record” conversations. I’m not sure Obama regretted the remark either…this President doesn’t say anything by accident.
m

This off-the-record remark was a winner for Obama. It’s a dog whistle moment which resonates with people.
shootfromthehip

smartest leak ever.
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