The most interesting part of the controversy over Obama advisor Samantha Power's referring to Hillary Clinton as a "monster"-- one might say the only interesting part-- is that immediately after Power said it, she tried to proclaim that it was "off the record." Here was Power's exact quote:
She is a monster, too–- that is off the record–- she is stooping to anything.
But the reporter who was interviewing her, Britain's Gerri Peev of The Scotsman, printed the comment anyway-- as she should have, because Peev had never agreed that any parts of the interview would be "off the record," and nobody has the right to demand unilaterally, and after the fact, that journalists keep their embarrassing remarks a secret.
It's extremely likely, though, that had Power been speaking to a typical reporter from the American establishment media, her request to keep her comments a secret would have been honored. In one of the ultimate paradoxes, for American journalists-- whose role in theory is to expose the secrets of the powerful-- secrecy is actually their central religious tenet, especially when it comes to dealing with the most powerful. Protecting, rather than exposing, the secrets of the powerful is the fuel of American journalism. That's how they maintain their access to and good relations with those in power.
Illustrating that point as vividly as anything I can recall, MSNBC's Tucker Carlson had Peev on his show last night and angrily criticized her publication of Power's remark . . .
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from commenter, palindromebeta:
"Now ... a question no one's asked: how many American journalists has she said exactly the same thing to, unreported? My guess is she expected another little conspiratorial chuckle, like the dozens of times she's said it before to a US journalist."
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