Ferraro's comments bring sense of deja vu

Ever get the feeling campaign controversies are following you around?

Just days after a key Barack Obama aide resigned after her controversial comments were published by my former newspaper, The Scotsman, my current paper The Daily Breeze found itself at the center of a media maelstrom when it published racially-charged comments made by Geraldine Ferraro to our reporter, Jim Farber.

The remarks made by Ferraro, the first woman to run on a ticket for a presidential nomination, about Obama’s race have been picked up by the Daily Kos, Raw Story and The New York Times.

In a home page piece posted Monday, Slate, the online political magazine owned by The Washington Post, follows the remarks by Obama’s foreign policy adviser Samantha Powers, in which she refers to Hillary Rodham Clinton as a “monster” .

Key similarity: Both, bizarrely, involve me. I woke up last Friday, clicked bleary-eyed to The Drudge Report and saw the front page of The Scotsman, on which my name has appeared, as a top link. Unsurprisingly, my eyes widened as I read on. Ditto Day 2, as the controversy reached fever pitch.

And much the same happened here. I joined The Breeze last week and, as Farber's piece with Ferraro’s comments echoed around the blogosphere -- and was picked up by the mainstream media -- a distinct sense of deja vu kicked in.

Key differences: Ferraro’s remarks were on the record. She did not try to retract them and she defended them Tuesday. But Powers immediately retracted her “monster” remark by adding that it was “off the record.” The Scotsman, the paper of record for my home country, published it. Cue a furious exchange on MSNBC between host Tucker Carlson and Scotsman reporter Gerri Peev on journalism ethics (unrelatedly, Carlson’s show was cancelled a day later).

That clip made the blogosphere rounds, too, but you can find more in-depth analysis of the reasons behind the decision here and here.

A week sure is a long time in journalism ....

Craig Howie