Politico’s David Catanese has been removed from covering the Todd Akin story after posting a series of tweets hypothetically defending Akin “for argument’s sake.”
Catanese’s tweets, covered by Twitchy last night, had some calling for his firing, but for now it appears that Catanese will remain, albeit not on the Akin story. Catanese says he’s learned his lesson.
Re last night: Bad idea trying to have nuanced conversation on highly charged issue on here. Did not intend to take a side. Lesson learned.
— Dave Catanese (@davecatanese) August 20, 2012
Politico editor-in-chief John Harris wrote Monday that 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.”
Pressure is on from some readers for Catanese to be fired outright.
https://twitter.com/LeeBeeGee3/status/237686743359422465
https://twitter.com/PaulGMurre/status/237686300474503168
Others call Catanese’s suspension from the story a case of bias.
Politico can't have a good reporter like @davecatanese going off script. Diversity of opinion won't be tolerated. Better get him in line!
— Matt Lewis (@mattklewis) August 20, 2012
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I'm going to monitor Politico twitter feeds & MSNBC just to make sure their reporters never "weigh in on the merits" of anything. #analysis
— Matt Lewis (@mattklewis) August 20, 2012
https://twitter.com/SonnyBunch/status/237682387952234496
Hey @politico, you may want to adjust your skirt, your bias is showing. http://t.co/RhA4d0Il
— Kemberlee Kaye (@KemberleeKaye) August 20, 2012
Media Matters clamping down on reporter==>>Politico reporter removed from Akin coverage. http://t.co/laYUJEgA via @HuffPostMedia
— Pabgirl (@pabgirl) August 20, 2012
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