I demand an apology from Samantha Power. Not for calling Hillary Clinton “a monster”, she already did that. I want her to apologize to me for endangering my livelihood. After her rather naive dealings with British reporter Gerri Peev she’s made it almost impossible for foreign journalists to truly cover the 2008 presidential election.
Power, a Harvard Professor, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, and an influential aide to Barack Obama, chose British newspaper The Scotsmen to publicize her new book on UN diplomat Sergio de Mello. When the journalist asked her about Hillary Clinton, she carelessly uttered, “She is a monster, too – that is off the record – she is stooping to anything.”
Of course, any reporter with a backbone would print this quote because Power said it before she hastily tried to withdraw it.
But there is something else at play. Power said it to a reporter with whom she most likely had no professional relations. Without the “monster” remark interviewer Peev and author Power would never have met again. Peev could run the quote, without fearing to lose any access in the future.
The episode will teach the campaign managers of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John McCain to limit interviews to the American media. They know them, and they might have leeway with them by offering or denying access later on. But foreign correspondents now appear to be an even bigger and more dangerous unknown to politicians then they have been before Power’s remarks.
Power speaks after her resignation to Irish TV station RTE:
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hx1l0LnI7HU]