The headlong rush into the real-time web means yet another acceleration of the news cycle.   At a certain point (some may say the daily paper, others the hourly blog or yet others, the 15 second refresh on Twitter) we crossed a threshold where all news become “breaking news” and the rush to pump it out exceeds the human capacity to filter on factors such as accuracy, suitability or value.

This is what happened when Terry Moran used Twitter to bit-cast Obama’s interview.  Apparently Obama, off-the-record, called Kanye West a jackass.  While this statement is basically an objective truth after West’s mic-hogging episode at the VMA Awards, it was still “off the record”.     Moran tweeted it – then regretted it.   He pulled his Tweet but too late…. Rule one on the Internet:  Past is Present – there is no erasing your record.

Tweeting from an interview is breaking news – but not the way we usually use the phrase.  I mean it literally.    How long now before any interviews conducted with anyone of note will include a ban on using any real time tools like Twitter?

Kudos to Current for capturing the image for posterity.

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