A confidant of Hillary Clinton Campaign Chairman John Podesta explained in an e-mail how to get the New York Times to change how the newspaper covered the secretary of state, according to e-mails made public by WikiLeaks from the chairman's hacked Gmail account.
Center for American Progress President Neera Tanden told Podesta how former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg met with Arthur Sulzberger, publisher of the Times, to get the paper to stop treating him like a billionaire dilettante instead of a third-term mayor.
While Bloomberg actually asked Sulzberger to join him “for coffee,” the liberal mayor used the opportunity to convince the publisher to change “the coverage moderately but also aired the issues in the newsroom so people were aware of it.”
According to an article posted on the topic by reporter Michael Bastasch on the Daily Caller website, the Times “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,” Bastasch stated.
Reporters Jo Becker and Mike McIntyre noted in that article: “At the heart of the tale are several men, leaders of the Canadian mining industry, who have been major donors to the charitable endeavors of former President Bill Clinton and his family.”
“Members of that group built, financed and eventually sold off to the Russians a company that would become known as Uranium One,” they stated. “Beyond mines in Kazakhstan that are among the most lucrative in the world, the sale gave the Russians control of one-fifth of all uranium production capacity in the United States.
They also noted:
Since uranium is considered a strategic asset, with implications for national security, the deal had to be approved by a committee composed of representatives from a number of United States government agencies.
Among the agencies that eventually signed off was the State Department, then headed by Mr. Clinton's wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Bastasch then indicated that the newspaper “also reported extensively on the book Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich by Peter Schweizer,” which “details the millions Clinton and her husband ... made giving speeches and running a nonprofit that took foreign donations.”
The 186-page investigation exposed “a pattern of financial transactions involving the Clintons that occurred contemporaneous with favorable U.S. policy decisions benefiting those providing the funds,” Schweizer noted.
In addition, Reporter Alex Pfieffer wrote an article entitled “Hill's Shills: Leaks Have Exposed Journalists in Clinton's Corner.” The post began: “The massive trove of e-mails by Clinton confidant John Podesta released by WikiLeaks has exposed journalists from a variety of media organizations who are 'with her.'”
Pfieffer stated:
CNBC Chief Washington Correspondent and New York Times Political Writer John Harwood is the most prominent journalist who is cozy in the e-mails with the Clinton camp. The CNBC anchor is also the one who should arguably be the most embarrassed.
Harwood in several e-mails to Clinton Campaign Chairman John Podesta showers Hillary in praise. Harwood in one e-mail to Podesta says: “[Hillary] was good here” after an event and in another describes her as “pretty strong.”
“Worse than just showing his love for Hillary, Harwood in the e-mails helps the campaign,” Pfieffer charged. “The CNBC anchor describes a story he is writing about Hillary as one 'she wants.'”
As NewsBusters previously reported, WikiLeaks has published more than 33,000 hacked e-mails from Podesta’s Gmail account. Internal Clinton campaign e-mails, for example, "showed aides gave opposition research to ABC News anchor [and long-time Clinton ally] 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 e-mail. “This interview is perfect. he lands nothing and everything is refuted (mostly based on our work).”
Haim Saban, chairman of the Univision Spanish television channel, is also seen giving advice to the Clinton campaign on how to best reach Hispanic voters, Pfieffer stated.
“Haim thinks we are under-reacting to Trump/Hispanics,” Podesta wrote in an e-mail. In another, Hillary’s closest aide, Huma Abedin, wrote: “If Haim is raising it, it means he’s hearing it from his Univision colleagues.”
In a statement, Haim said: “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.”
It would be interesting to see what might happen if a conservative Republican asked the publisher of a major newspaper to get together “for coffee.” The caffeine would probably most exciting thing to come out of that meeting.
