PITTSBURGH -- The new issue of the New Yorker magazine contains a detailed profile of Teresa Heinz Kerry, wife of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry.

One comment getting attention in the article is a claim that Heinz Kerry called her detractors "scumbags" during an interview last April with Channel 4 Action News anchor Sally Wiggin.

A check of that tape shows that while Heinz Kerry did use the word, it came in the context of discussing what her son Chris called the "noble art of public service."

"I believe there is a nobility in public service. I believe every citizen can be a public servant. And should be," said Heinz Kerry.

Sally Wiggin asked, "Do you think some of the nobility has gone out of public service?"

Sally Wiggin's Interview With Teresa Heinz Kerry, April 2004
More Video From April 2004 Interview

Heinz Kerry said, "Oh, there is a lot of scumbags everywhere. Not just in politics. In everything. There are a lot of immoral people everywhere."

The author of the New Yorker article was allowed by Heinz Kerry to observe the original interview as it was taped.

The magazine did contact Channel 4 Action News to confirm the quote, but the context in the final article gave different shading to the meaning of the remarks.