Obama calls Kanye West a “jackass”

in Music Politics by griffn — September 15, 2009 at 2:44 am | 6 comments

ABC News reporter Terry Moran caused quite a commotion tonight on Twitter after writing the following: “Pres. Obama just called Kanye West a “jackass” for his outburst at VMAs when Taylor Swift won. Now THAT’S presidential.”

Although it wasn’t long before Moran removed it, with over a million followers, the tweet quickly bounced around Twitter through various users. (And it can still be found here).

Now, an ABC spokesperson explains to POLITICO what happened:

In the process of reporting on remarks by President Obama that were made during a CNBC interview, ABC News employees prematurely tweeted a portion of those remarks that turned out to be from an off-the-record portion of the interview. This was done before our editorial process had been completed. That was wrong. We apologize to the White House and CNBC and are taking steps to ensure that it will not happen again.

I think deep down Kanye is a fragile guy who uses the bravado to hide insecurity, and a comment like that from the president is going to sting. I also think the VMAs are half a step up from the Kids Choice Awards and everyone is taking this whole thing way too seriously. As for Obama, maybe he should train some of that fire away from pop stars and onto the obstructionist Republicans he keeps rolling over for. I don’t know what Obama says to reporters off the record, but I’d be surprised if he’s ever called Glenn Beck a jackass in public. He tends to be very careful about not offending the people who will never, ever vote for him.

kanye_taylor_west

Tags: Barack Obama Kanye West MTV Taylor Swift Video Music Awards

Author:

I'm a young black man with a 401(k) plan.

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6 Comments

negrostotle
2009-09-15
02:48:55
Numerous things wrong with this.

1. Looks like Moran waived "bye-bye" to journalistic integrity a long time ago. You couldn't figure out that the president calling someone a jackass may have been off the record?

2. The post was too right; I'm sure Glen Beck has never received the same treatment.

3. Why the hell does Obama care about the VMA's? Should he be doing that "run this country" thing instead of worrying about the psyche of one 18 year old singer...who has so much money that i think she can handle being downtrodden for 10 seconds anyway?
forbesave
2009-09-15
02:50:59
Obama calls Kanye West a “jackass” http://bit.ly/o7QYB #Obama #VMA

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
griffn
2009-09-15
03:08:00
Yeah, Moran is an idiot, no doubt. And I think if Taylor Swift had just kept it moving and not acted like her delicate sensibilities had just been stabbed, everyone would be treating this incident with the humor it deserves instead of acting like Kanye ran the girl over with his car. I don't remember ODB having to do a mea culpa sit down on Leno. I'm tempted to bring the black man/white woman dynamic into this, but I won't go there.
Makiha_Moka
2009-09-15
05:08:58
Hahaha thats suck a crack up!!! RT @sports_business: RT @forbesave: Obama calls Kanye West a “jackass” http://bit.ly/o7QYB #Obama #VMA

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
rvj5234
2009-09-15
11:29:02
everyone wants to weigh in LOL! RT: @sports_business: RT @forbesave: Obama calls Kanye West a “jackass” http://bit.ly/o7QYB #Obama #VMA

This comment was originally posted on Twitter
tigger500
2009-09-15
10:08:22
Couldn't agree more. Obama needs to get his ass in gear. Not feelin dude right now.

The less said about Kanye the better. Been over him for about 5 years, bout time the rest of the world got on board.