Mayhill Fowler, how big is your tape recorder?

James Rainey's article about the "gotcha" perpetrated against Bill Clinton by amateur journalist Mayhill Fowler says  the tape recorder Fowler used to capture Clinton calling writer Todd Purdum a scumbag was "candy-bar-sized."

If it's true that Fowler's recorder is about the size of, say, a medium Snickers, it might make you think Clinton is pretty un-savvy about just whom he shares his invectives with. 

Even if Fowler didn't identify herself as a reporter, the presence of a Snickers-sized recording device ought to be enough to signal Clinton--a man who's been dealing with worldwide media for decades--that he wasn't talking to an interested housewife.

But what if Fowler's tape recorder was, as she says in this post from last September, more like the size of a "Band-Aid?"  An object that small would be much more difficult to spot, especially if you're in a busy crowd. 

Maybe Ms. Fowler can send along a photo of her recorder to settle the question?

Not to say Clinton's comments are defensible even if he didn't know he was being taped. If you tell a perfect stranger that someone you don't like is a "scumbag" and a lie propagator, you're definitely tempting fate whether or not the stranger is a reporter.

But have the rules changed so much that there's no such thing as "off the record" anymore?  Where anything you say to anyone, anywhere, any time can be used to skewer you, whether you think you're in "public" or not?  Let's face it, we've all got recording devices of some kind, and more embarrassing moments of all kinds are going to be caught on tape. Trying to fight that tide is a fool's errand. 

And that's all well and good, it just means that from now on, whenever a person of interest talks, they're going to be offering a message that is tailored to everyone, to offend no one. Which human being can reasonably talk like that all the time?  So it'll be sayonara nuance, adios personal touch, and hello talking points.

Maybe Clinton is trapped in a happier time, when there was still such a thing as a private conversation.  Face it, Bill, everything you say can and will be used against you.

Related:
Exposing Mayhill Fowler, citizen journalist, who scoops the pros (Top of the Ticket)
How Mayhill Fowler got online scoops on Obama and Bill Clinton (LAT.com)
Gina Gershon and Angelina Jolie hired the same lawyers? (The Dish Rag)
VF backs reporter, Clinton Camp apologizes, Gershon demands retraction (The Dish Rag)
Vanity Fair links Bill Clinton to actress Gina Gershon (The Dish Rag)
Did you hear that? Bill Clinton's head explodes over Obama and Vanity Fair (Top of the Ticket)
Barack Obama can thank 'citizen journalist' for 'bitter' tempest (LAT.com)
Obama: No surprise that hard-pressed Pennsylvanians turn bitter (Huffington Post)

image courtesy Goran Zec