Politico Reporter David Catanese has now been removed from covering Todd Akin as a result of a series of tweets in which he defended Todd Akin, causing a firestorm of controversy and offending even many of his colleagues at Politico.
(Catanese has not, however, been fired, as Joe Williams had been after making comments about Mitt Romney being "very comfortable" around white people--nor has Catanese been temporarily suspended.)
In a memo , John Harris and Executive Editor Jim VandeHei state:
From: John Harris Subject: Twitter
We have had newsroom conversations about the importance of good judgment on social platforms like Twitter and the perils of letting that slip.
Unfortunately, today offered a good example. David Catanese crossed a line a reporter shouldn't cross on Twitter when he seemed to weigh in on the merits of Todd Akin's comments -- especially in a way many people, including many POLITICO colleagues, understandably found offensive.
Dave's tweets on Akin created a distraction to his own work, and to the newsroom as a whole. They also made himself part of the story, requiring us for now to remove him from Akin coverage.
Today's episode is a reminder that we need to be paying more attention to the ongoing issue of the right way for POLITICO journalists to be using social media. We have raised this issue before, and if you have questions about how this applies to your own work please speak with your direct editor.
John
Jim
You can find examples of his tweets and discussion in this diary that I posted this morning and an even more detailed accounting in this posting by frontpager Kaili Joy Gray (and some of the Catanese tweets she reveals are really shocking.)
But as deanarms asks in his diary on the Catanese controversy, "Why does Akin apologist David Catanese still have a job at Politico?"
Is this some kind of double standard?
UPDATE: If you want to contact Politico and let them know how you feel about this, you can reach them here at "Contact Us."