Hillary Clinton’s top spokesman Wednesday attempted to discredit reporters who cover the likely Democratic presidential candidate, but neither he nor regular Clinton reporters will say which journalists he has in mind.
In a National Journal interview covering the frustrations Clinton loyalists have with the news media, spokesman Philippe Reines bemoaned anonymous Clinton critics cited by journalists.
“What gets lost is, there are no consequences for [the source or the media] when they’re wrong — there just aren’t,” he told the Journal. “If you were to go back and look at the last three, four, five, six months of coverage about Secretary Clinton, you’re going to see certain reporters who cover her closely whose accuracy rate is less than 50-50.”
Reines did not respond to a request by the Washington Examiner media desk to elaborate on which specific reporters or reports were inaccurate.
Several reporters who regularly report on Clinton and her campaign-in-waiting either did not return a request for comment, declined to talk on the record or didn’t know what to make of Reines’ remark.
“I haven’t gotten any complaints,” said Politico reporter Glenn Thrush, who has written critically of Clinton in the past.
“I don’t know which reporters he’s referring to,” said New York Times reporter Nicholas Confessore, who last week co-wrote an article on discontent brewing between Clinton allies as they compete for access to potential donors. “So, it is hard to know how to judge his statement.”
Clinton friends and operatives quoted in the Journal story expressed resentment toward unnamed “allies,” “loyalists” and “advisers” regularly cited in news reports. According to Clinton’s team, these sources aren’t actually close enough to the former first lady to know about her 2016 intentions or operation.
The Journal story comes just after a spate of reports — in the New York Times, Politico and Buzzfeed — scrutinizing the still-forming Clinton 2016 campaign, which recently saw an internal fight become public.
Last week Politico broke the story that David Brock, founder of the liberal Media Matters for America and a friend of Clinton, resigned from Priorities USA Action, a pro-Clinton Super PAC. Brock charged that the group had planted negative stories in the news media about the fundraising strategies of his organizations. Priorities USA Action denied the claim and the two appeared to reconcile.
The Politico story came after an initial report from the Times on the millions of dollars that political consultant Mary Pat Bonner brings in for herself as a fundraiser for Clinton. A recent BuzzFeed story added behind-the-scenes details of how Brock intentionally made his resignation from the Super PAC public.
Clinton’s failed 2008 campaign for president is widely remembered for ongoing staff infighting and damaging leaks to the press.
