News that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has seized the private server of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton barely made ripples on the front pages of some of the biggest news organizations in the country, even as other news outlets were wondering whether the event will doom Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.
The New York Times’ and the Los Angeles Times’ websites, for example, ignored the story Wednesday morning. Both websites gave zero front page attention to the FBI development.
The L.A. Times did find time to publish three front page Clinton stories on its website, including “Clinton’s campaign-trail moment with manslaughter convict highlights drug abuse issue,” “Hillary Clinton unveils $350-billion plan to make college more affordable,” and “How voters see Hillary Clinton depends not only on political views but age, too.”
The Times published several stories detailing 2016 Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush’s attacks on Clinton.
For Yahoo, the Clinton FBI investigation was worth only a cross-post from the Christian Science Monitor. The story, which appeared at the bottom of Yahoo’s homepage, suggested that it was Clinton’s idea to turn over the server. In reality, Clinton surrendered the server pursuant to a search warrant.
The front page of the Washington Post’s website also covered the FBI probe, but that report also suggested that it was Clinton’s decision to turn over the server.
The Huffington Post covered the story, but it buried news of Clinton’s problems at the bottom of its website, right next to story about a missing dog.
CNN.com gave the report prominent coverage, with the story making its way to the website’s “top stories” column. The front pages of foxnews.com, the Wall Street Journal, ABCNews.com, USA Today and NBCNews.com each space to the investigation.
In the world of print, the most-circulated newspapers in the United States made zero mention of the FBI probe.
The Washington Post, New York Times, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal didn’t dedicate any front page ink to the situation, although the story broke Tuesday evening, which may have made it more difficult to have it land on the front page.
Cable and network television have been mostly disinterested in the FBI story, opting instead to focus more on former reality TV star Donald Trump and the recent unrest in Ferguson, Mo., according to data compiled by TV Eyes:
Clinton’s private, unauthorized server had at least two emails that “contained classified State Department information when originated,” an inspector general told Congress on Tuesday.
