Barbara Morgan, the Anthony Weiner campaign communications director who had some choice words (such as “slutbag”) for former intern Olivia Nuzzi Tuesday, said in her subsequent apology she thought she was speaking off the record. On Wednesday night, Talking Points Memo’s Hunter Walker, to whom she was speaking when she went on her epic rant, told MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell: “It was definitely on record. We’ve had two senior editors from our organization scrutinize every aspect of this story. There’s no question it was an on the record conversation.” As The Observer noted Wednesday evening, this is not the first time Morgan has let slip a few heated comments to a reporter, then said they were off the record.
Morgan hasn’t really flogged the “off the record” thing in regard to her “slutbag” rant since she first mentioned it on Tuesday night. But she did so about a New York Post story last week in which she was quoted saying, “do you even fucking know how Facebook works?” The Observer’s Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke noticed the line had since been removed from the story.
Another line in a Post story from Wednesday illuminates why: “Last week, an incensed Morgan called Post reporters and editors and unleashed several expletive-laden rants on Weiner’s behalf. She later said her curse-filled diatribes were ‘off the record.’” This keeps happening. But now that it’s done so this explosively, Morgan seems to have gotten the point. Whether or not she actually changes her behavior is what will differentiate her from her boss.
