Ouch! Hot Mic!

One thing people learn if they either work in media or deal with it regularly is, always assume a microphone in front of you is on. Always. That's shorthand for, don't start saying stupid stuff because you think a mic is off. That's a lesson you would think Rev. Jesse Jackson would have learned by now. Apparently not.

By way of full disclosure, I've interviewed Rev. Jackson literally dozens of times over the past three decades, and have learned an awful lot from him. One thing I learned is that off the cuff can often become off the wall. That's obviously what happened when Rev. Jackson used what he describes as a crude remark to criticize Barack Obama.

That remark was "I want to cut his nuts out" for what he considers "talking down" to black people. Rev. Jackson hurried to apologize just as the 24 hour cable news machine began airing the remark. The Obama campaign accepted the apology, but in a bizarre twist, the most stinging criticism came from Rev. Jackson's own son. Cong. Jesse Jackson Jr. called his father's statements reckless, and went further. "I thoroughly reject and repudiate his ugly rhetoric".

Indeed. The irony is that Rev. Jackson actually supports Obama. In reality, it should be no more than a one news cycle story. Yet, you never know. Which is the lesson folks should take from this.

You never know when a mic is on.