As part of its ongoing election coverage of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, The New York Times on Tuesday published a quick article investigating the former first lady’s Pinterest account, and said it’s showing Clinton’s “softer side.”
As a popular social media platform, Pinterest is used primarily to share (“pin”) pictures, recipes, fashion tips and the like.
“Mrs. Clinton pinned a recipe for chocolate chip cookies under the Summer Style category of her brand new Pinterest page,” the Times reported in an actual story. “The page also shows off a ‘Grillery Clinton’ apron (modeled by a young campaign aide) and Iowa cherry pie with the campaign’s ‘H’ logo in the center of the lightly brown crust. (‘The cherry on top!’ Clinton calls it.)”
The Times report recalled 1992, when Clinton faced criticism for defending her legal career by saying, “I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas.”
“Clinton has found a welcome outlet on social media, with Pinterest, the picture-sharing platform, being the latest to allow her to display a softer side in a safe and controlled format,” the report noted.
Clinton’s supposed attempt to project a “softer side” could be in response to the criticism she weathered during her disastrous 2014 book tour, when she was mocked repeatedly for being out of touch.
To that end, in her reported quest to appear more relatable to the average American, Team Clinton has created several Clinton-related social media accounts.
And the Times is on it:
This isn’t the first time that the banal has merited election coverage from the Times.
In April, the Times rushed to report that Clinton had ordered a burrito bowl at a Chipotle restaurant in Ohio. Clinton “showed how unassuming she…could be,” Times reporter Maggie Haberman wrote. Haberman claimed she was tipped off by an anonymous source who told her of Clinton’s supposedly spontaneous pit stop.
“Hillary Clinton passed her first real test of the primary season: She ordered wisely at Chipotle,” read a Times tweet.
In a separate article, the Times awarded the former first lady’s burrito bowl order an “above average” rating for her fast food order.
