David Brock, founder of the liberal Media Matters watchdog and a Hillary Clinton loyalist, said on Wednesday that a New York Times report on Clinton’s email practices while secretary of state was “sloppily done” and “based on a false premise.”
“The piece didn’t stand up to scrutiny after it was published,” said Brock on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” where he called on the Times to issue a correction to the report, which was written by Michael S. Schmidt and published Monday night.
The Times reported that Clinton, a likely 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, exclusively used a private email account to conduct government business, though federal rules require that government officials have their electronic correspondence stored by federal agencies.
Clinton’s use of a private account meant that her emails were not immediately saved in appropriate government storage, though her team has handed over thousands of emails in the past.
Brock said it’s unclear from Schmidt’s reporting what Clinton has done wrong and that Schmidt “seems to be digging his heels in and now giving his opinion,” a suggestion that Schmidt is not an objective journalist.
“Let’s not have a situation here where the normal journalistic rules apply to everybody but Clinton,” Brock said.
Panelists joining Brock on MSNBC, including veteran reporter Bob Woodward, rebutted Brock, maintaining that Clinton’s email practices were questionable at best.
Since the Times’ original report, Schmidt has further reported that the use of a private email account allowed Clinton to thwart Freedom of Information Act requests from media outlets seeking to obtain her official government correspondences.
Schmidt declined to comment for this story.
