While the Hillary 2016 crew is still feeling the burn/Bern from the absolute drubbing she received at the hands of the 74-year-old Socialist with ear hair, reports are bubbling to the surface that at least one reporter from a major political news magazine took direct direction from Clinton’s staff in 2009.
As reported by J.K. Trotter of the new media portal Gawker.com on Feb. 9, 2016, while still assigned as the Secretary of State, an email exchange between the Atlantic‘s Marc Ambinder and Hillary Clinton’s aide at the State Department, Philippe Reines, gave specific instructions on how a certain event was to be covered. Stunningly, Trotter has not only produced the State Department’s very specific directions on how Ambinder should report a certain story, but also Ambinder’s acknowledgment.
Ambinder initially contacted Reines requesting an advance copy of a speech Hillary was scheduled to deliver to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). Reines replied that he would make the speech available on three conditions:
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
From: [Philippe Reines] Sent: Wednesday, July 15 2009 10:06 AM
To: Ambinder, Marc
Subject: Re: Do you have a copy of HRC’s speech to share?3 [conditions] actually
1) You in your own voice describe them as “muscular”
2) You note that a look at the CFR seating plan shows that all the envoys — from Holbrooke to Mitchell to Ross — will be arrayed in front of her, which in your own clever way you can say certainly not a coincidence and meant to convey something
3) You don’t say you were blackmailed!
As reported, one minute later, Ambinder responded:
From: Ambinder, Marc
Sent: Wednesday, July 15, 2009 10:07 AM
To: Philippe Reines
Subject: RE: Do you have a copy of HRC’s speech to share?got it
Damningly, Trotter notes that Ambinder was quite obedient. The opening paragraph of the article he wrote later that day, under the headline “Hillary Clinton’s ‘Smart Power’ Breaks Through,” precisely followed Reines’ instructions:
When you think of President Obama’s foreign policy, think of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. That’s the message behind a muscular speech that Clinton is set to deliver today to the Council on Foreign Relations. The staging gives a clue to its purpose: seated in front of Clinton, subordinate to Clinton, in the first row, will be three potentially rival power centers: envoys Richard Holbrooke and George Mitchell, and National Security Council senior director Dennis Ross.
Perhaps kicking the Hmmm Factor all the way to 11, reporter John Sexton of Breitbart.com noted on Feb. 9, 2016, that “The Atlantic is not the only news site which covered Clinton’s CFR speech exactly as her staff wanted it covered. In an amazing coincidence, Mike Allen of Politico wrote about the speech in a piece that opened, ‘In a muscular first major address as secretary of state….’ And midway through the story Allen writes, ‘A look at the CFR’s guest seating chart shows that arrayed in the front row will be top members of her team — the envoys she has called her ‘force multipliers’: Richard Holbrooke, George Mitchell, Dennis Ross, Philip Goldberg and Stephen Bosworth.'”
Sexton also reported, “Similarly, the New York Times’ Mark Landler seemed to be working from the same script. In his second paragraph he writes, ‘But with its muscular tone and sweeping scope, it was also an effort to recapture the limelight….’ And in his fourth paragraph, he mentions the attendees, ‘She even marshaled a cheering section of special envoys and other senior American diplomats in the first few rows at the Council on Foreign Relations.’ Neither of these details appeared in the Associated Press story about the speech which the New York Times linked.”
To his credit, Sexton made a point of noting, “There’s no proof that Allen or the Landler spoke with Reines or anyone else working for Clinton before filing their stories, but the details are remarkably similar.”
