ABC News has apologised after a high-profile news anchor reported on Twitter that US President Barack Obama called rapper Kanye West a "jackass" in an off-the-record conversation.
Press play in the video above to listen to a recording of Obama's comments about Kanye.
The exchange, provoked by West's conduct at the MTV Video Music Awards when he interrupted an acceptance speech by teen star Taylor Swift, occurred during a break between a series of interviews by Obama at the White House Monday.
The comment, from an off-the-record portion of an interview by US business channel CNBC, was tweeted to one million followers on the micro-blogging site by "Nightline" anchor Terry Moran. The tweet was later deleted.
"In the process of reporting on remarks by President Obama that were made during a CNBC interview, ABC News employees prematurely tweeted a portion of those remarks that turned out to be from an off-the-record portion of the interview," said ABC News in a statement late Monday.
"This was done before our editorial process had been completed. That was wrong. We apologize to the White House and CNBC and are taking steps to ensure that it will not happen again."
ABC News senior vice president Jeffrey Schneider said that the organization had reached out to the White House and CNBC in a series of telephone calls.
"It was a mistake. It's certainly one that we regret. We certainly made that very clear to CNBC and the White House," he said.
The White House declined to comment on the controversy.
"I'm not going to get into what the president had to say in an off-the-record conversation," said Obama's deputy press secretary Bill Burton.
ABC said several staffers heard the comment because they share a transmission line with CNBC, but did not hear the stipulation that the comments were not for reporting.
Swift had just started speaking at Sunday's MTV extravaganza when West -- whose albums have sold millions and earned him several Grammy awards -- abruptly cut in and declared that he felt the award should have gone to R'n'B star Beyonce.
Beyonce, who looked embarrassed by the outburst, later invited Swift to share the stage with her after receiving her own award.
West issued an apology for his tirade.
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