Politics

LEAKS: Clinton Ally Lays Out How To Get NYT To Cover Hillary More Favorably

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Michael Bastasch DCNF Managing Editor
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A confidant of Hillary Clinton campaign chair John Podesta laid out in an email how to get The New York Times to change how the paper covered the former secretary of state, according to leaked emails.

Center for American Progress President Neera Tanden told Podesta how former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg met with Arthur Sulzberger, NYT’s publisher, to get the paper to cover him more favorably.

Tanden told Podesta that “when bloomberg was having problems w the times he called Arthur Schulzburger and asked for coffee.” The July 9, 2015 email was one of more than 33,000 published online by WikiLeaks from Podesta’s hacked Gmail account.

“He made the case that they were treating him like a billionaire dilettante instead of Third term mayor,” Tanden wrote. “It changed the coverage moderately but also aired the issues in the newsroom so people were more conscious of it.”

“But Arthur is a pretty big wuss so he’s not going to do a lot more than that,” Tanden wrote. “Hillary would have to be the one to call.”

NYT had published a series of scathing articles earlier that year on potential pay-to-play arrangements between the Clinton Foundation and the Department of State. One such report detailed how Clinton’s approval of a Russian uranium deal while heading the State Department netted millions to a major foundation donor.

NYT also reported extensively on the book “Clinton Cash” by Peter Schweizer. The book details the millions Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, made giving speeches and running a nonprofit that took foreign donations.

Tanden also suggested Howard — the subject of the email — “thinks the brown and women pundits can shame the times and others on social media.”

“So cultivating Joan Walsh, Yglesias, Allen, perry bacon, Greg Sargent, to defend her is helpful. They can be emboldened,” she wrote. “Fwiw – I pushed pir to do this a yr ago.”

WikiLeaks has published more than 33,000 hacked emails from Podesta’s Gmail account. And more than a few of them give an insight into the Clinton campaign’s media allies.

Internal Clinton campaign emails, for example, showed aides gave opposition research to ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos before he gave an adversarial interview to Schweitzer about his book.

“Great work everyone,” Jesse Ferguson, Clinton’s deputy national press secretary, wrote in an April 2015 email. “This interview is perfect. he lands nothing and everything is refuted (mostly based on our work).”

In several emails, CNBC’s John Harwood showered Clinton and Podesta with praise, and he even bragged about asking Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump a tough question during one of the primary debates.

Haim Saban, chairman of Univision, is also seen giving advice to the Clinton campaign on how to best reach Hispanic voters.

“I’ve been a supporter of Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party long before my affiliation with Univision, and one thing has nothing to do with the other,” Haim said in a statement after the emails were released.

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