On Wednesday, I noted that the New York Times had heaped a lot of favorable coverage upon New Yorker writer Jane Mayer’s new book on the Koch brothers, despite the fact that the coverage was unfair to the Kochs and failed to disclose that Mayer is the wife of the Times‘s Washington editor. Well, the Times may want to take a closer look at whether Mayer’s connection to the paper is a good thing. Among the Hillary Clinton emails released by the State Department is this one:
Just as a quick reminder, Sidney Blumenthal is a particularly odious creature of Washington. During Hillary Clinton’s tenure at the State Department, he advised her on Libya strategy, even though he was engaged in a shady war profiteering scheme in that country with a private military group. He has been drawing a salary from the Clinton Foundation and Media Matters, which is practically an arm of the Clinton campaign. Back during the Clinton presidency, he was caught lying to the press about the Lewinsky affair and he very nearly ran afoul of the law by circulating scandalous stories about GOP politicians. Further, he certainly despoiled the New Yorker’s reputation when he worked there in the mid-nineties, while he worked for the Clinton campaign while remaining on the magazine’s payroll. During the 1996 election, he would assume the role of reporter and conduct extensive conversations about messaging and strategy with the Dole campaign, and then turn right around and report what he’d learned to the Clintons.
While Mayer did show some restraint, no credible newspaper would want their unpublished stories being leaked or gossiped about with the likes of Sidney Blumenthal.
