Ever since WikiLeaks began releasing once-private messages from Hillary Clinton campaign chief John Podesta, people have had even more hard evidence of the mainstream media’s support for and collusion with Democratic Party operatives and campaigns.
One recent example shows CNBC’s Becky Quick -- the co-host of the channel’s popular show Squawk Box and a co-moderator with John Harwood at a 2015 Republican primary debate -- promising to support Sylvia Mathews Burwell, who had just been named the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
According to an article on the Breitbart.com website by Justin Haskins, executive editor of The Heartland Institute, “Quick’s pledge came in response to an email that appears to have been sent by Erskine Bowles, the former president of the University of North Carolina and the former chairperson of President Barack Obama’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.”
In the April 11, 2014, email, Haskins noted, Bowles wrote to Quick to praise Burwell in the wake of the negative news coverage surrounding the appointment:
I listen to some of the talk today about Sylvia’s move to HHS. As you may recall, I picked Sylvia and John Podesta to be my two deputy chiefs of staff. I picked Sylvia not only because she is brilliant, ... nice, informed and smart, but most importantly to me, she knows how to run a large organization and run it effectively.
Regardless of your politics, any American should be glad that the president picked someone so competent to head such a critically important agency.
Less than three minutes later, Quick promised to “defend” Burwell.
“Thanks so much for the note -- anyone with your recommendation is good by me,” wrote Quick. “Wish I’d seen this earlier while we were still blabbering! I’m out the first two days of next week but will make sure to defend her when things get further along in the nomination process.”
Bowles later forwarded those emails to Podesta, who thanked him by writing: “This will help a lot, and I think at the end of the day most of these senators will come through. … At any rate, thanks for coming [through] as you always do."
“Burwell has faced much controversy since being named secretary of Health and Human Services, a position she continues to hold, primarily because of her role as the chief defender of the Affordable Care Act,” Haskins stated.
“Quick, who is also the anchorwoman of CNBC’s On the Money, is married to Matt Quayle, an influential executive producer at CNBC,” the author noted. “She has previously worked as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal and as a columnist for Fortune.”
Quick’s pledge to protect Burwell on CNBC came soon after other reports of media bias surfaced, also thanks to emails discovered through WikiLeaks’ Podesta database.
In a report posted on Wednesday by the Fox News Channel under the title "Bias Alert," the WikiLeaks documents are described as “shining a light on the cozy and often improper relationship key members of the press,” including such “eyebrow-raising revelations” as “advance notice of debate questions, the promise coverage and even editorial control over stories.”
“We have had her tee up stories for us before and have never been disappointed,” a January 2015 memo said of former Politico and current New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman.
“Clinton campaign officials have not denied the authenticity of the emails,” the article indicated, “but have sought to blame Russia for supplying the ... correspondence to the 'hacktivist' group WikiLeaks and have warned that they could be doctored.”
In an email posted on Tuesday, the people behind WikiLeaks declared: “Journalism is at an end if press let the Clinton campaign endlessly get away with dodging questions using 'we were hacked' on every issue.”
Also, Donna Brazile -- then a Cable News Network contributor but now acting head of the Democratic National Committee -- emailed members of the Clinton campaign to warn them about a question on the death penalty that would be asked at a debate with Bernie Sanders, her rival for the Democratic presidential nomination.
In a statement released Tuesday afternoon, Brazile denied leaking questions: “I often shared my thoughts with each and every campaign, and any suggestions that indicate otherwise are completely untrue.”
Podesta's emails “prove many in the mainstream media cannot be trusted to report fairly or accurately,” Haskins added. “Americans must realize this and seek sources of information that will present facts fairly and honestly.”
“People should only trust hard news reporters who aren’t colluding closely with politicians and their closest advisers,” he stated.
Haskins concluded his article by asking: “Is that really too much to ask for?”
