I have agreed with President Obama three times now, thanks to his recent “off-the-record” comment about Kanye West. The first time came in a shocking condemnation of wasteful spending, namely on the F-22. While an incredibly cool aircraft, it simply has no role and is not used. Why we were paying for something of little interest to anyone, to include the Air Force, is beyond me. The second came during a speech that caused, without much rationale, much uproar. Those too busy scowling at the thought of a President speaking to school children without their explicit consent might have missed the first time a Democrat has come right out and championed personal responsibility. That’s right, he flat out told students they are ultimately responsible for their educational success. Not their teachers, not their parents, not the government. They are. I’ll give the man a standing ovation for that remark, and only wish he would urge personal responsibility at more (all) levels of society.

Now, this third agreement comes in response to Kanye West’s interruption of Taylor Swift at the VMAs. President Obama called Kanye West a “jackass” during an “off-the-record” portion of an interview with CNBC. This comment was tweeted, and quickly removed as a breach of “journalistic integrity.” People are, for some reason, upset about this tweet-leak of the President’s comments and that baffles me. If it’s journalistic integrity we’re after, the comments never should have been cut from the interview in the first place. The man said it, and he can face whatever backlash comes from it. If you’d not like your comments repeated, you should probably not say them in the first place.

Let’s consider this for a moment. Media, whether you like it or not, are about ratings. They are not about information. If you disagree, you should stop reading now. Given that Kanye’s comment was a top trend on Twitter and occupied the majority of casual conversation heard at many universities around the country the following day, it stands to reason that the topic was on the minds of many potential viewers. Relevance. The President called Kanye a jackass soon after the interruption of Taylor Swift. Timeliness. Media, remember, are about ratings. We have a relevant issue with a timely response to something of interest to a large number of viewers. How much sense does it make to censor that comment? None.

Now some will say such comments are slander, but we’d be supremely naive to act as if a politician’s career is not built largely on slander in the first place. Of course to slander one, you must make false statements. Kanye is a jackass. That is a true statement, and thus the comment is not slander.