As if getting into a scuffle with a Capitol Hill police officer wasn’t bad enough now Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) is in a dispute with Georgia television station WGCL-TV over comments she made last week about one of her staffers, Coz Carson, while she thought she was off the record.
If a source gives information that is off the record, that source must indicate that it is off the record before giving the information, otherwise it is fairgame.
If a source says something is off the record after the fact, the reporter has the right to publish it.
That definition is absolutely true and pertinent in this case, because the media has a right to air her comments and she should have known better than to open her mouth.
But then again she is not the only political figure to get caught on audio.
McKinney, who was faced with questions about her recent run-in with federal authorities after trying to bypass a security checkpoint on Georgia’s Capitol Hill and reportedly hit the officer with her fist, was unaware that during a conference with the media, her microphone was still on and said, “Oh, crap, you know what? They lied to Coz and Coz is a fool for believing them.”
What she was referring to was that Carson was told that reporters would not ask questions about the incident she was involved in.
However, after realizing that she was caught by audio sound bite, McKinney said afterward, “Anything that is captured by your audio while I’m not seated in this chair is off the record and is not permissible to be used-is that understood?”
Remember the 2004 presidential election when Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) was caught by audio sound bites criticizing the Republican Party and said that all Republicans should be removed from the House of Representatives.
Both Kerry and McKinney who are representatives of their perspective states should know that the media could use it, if it exposed what they really felt.
To the state of Georgia you should be ashamed of what McKinney did and now that she has filed for reelection my question to you is, will would you vote to put her back in as a representative?
Another thing, can the state of Georgia trust her? I know I won’t be able to if she took a swing at me.
As far as I’m concerned due to the fact that she was distressed over the fact that a civilian officer did not recognize her and the officer asked for identification following her attempt to bypass security, what that ended up doing is showing how much of an ego she has.
