In March 2015, Hillary Clinton gave an address at an event for the prestigious Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting — a highly anticipated occasion in light of Clinton’s long and fractious relationship with the national political press corps. In her remarks, Clinton reflected on being asked to “spend an evening with a room full of political reporters.” She joked, “I thought to myself, what could possibly go wrong?”
Media joke!
There’s a backstory behind that quip, one that WikiLeaks has opened to public view in its serial disclosure of the email correspondence of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. Here’s the sequence: A few days before the event, speechwriter Josh Schwerin circulates a draft of Clinton’s remarks. In so doing, he tees things up as follows: “We had talked about a few possible goals for this speech: 1) clear the air a bit with the press, possibly with self-deprecating humor; 2) explain the important role that serious, fact-based journalism plays in our democracy, as opposed to gotcha-style politics of personal destruction; 3) and play a little offense on health care given that Monday is the 5-year anniversary of the ACA.”
Thus started a tidy debate about the appropriateness of humor for this forum. Clintonite Joel Benenson says the jokes weren’t “working” — “a little too close to the bone without a punchline that really works at taking the seriousness out of it.”
Jennifer Palmieri, communications director for the campaign (which was formally launched a few weeks after the Toner speech), chimes in with these words, which must be read in full:
“So, my take is that the best way for HRC to connect with this audience is to show some empathy as opposed self-deprecating humour which at some level is making the event about her.
“Let’s pretend everyone in the audience is a serious, on the level journalist trying to get the story right and cover serious issues in an absurdly difficult environment where speed and mass appeal are over valued. Have her commend them on how hard they all work in this difficult environment to tell the facts, unearth important stories (maybe we can reference some good stories on important issues that we would not know about where it not for nyt and other outlets). Robin [Toner] is the model for getting to both substance and telling the human side of the story. Robin hasn’t been gone for very long, but it has gotten even harder in the intervening years to do what she did – think if HRC acknowledges that and says she and all thoughtful people appreciate the struggle the reporters in the room face, and how impt it is that they keep at it, how needed they really are – think that would go over really well. The press is the most hated profession and they are all losing heir jobs to 23 yr old bloggers who make listicles about drinking games at Northwestern. Let’s give them an ego boost.
“HRC is also a victim of the new speed and click bait above all else, but she doesn’t have to bring it back to herself – the audience will do that on her own.
“She should poke fun at herself but I would maybe do it along the lines of how press thinks she doesn’t like them, but what a life-changing revelation it was to her to read the nyt as a young woman (I know she now thinks less of them, but still) and how much she loves npr and all the wonky stories. I would also do an email joke – maybe some emails between her and the press, I will think more about that.”
Bolding added to highlight a possible motive for shifting views of the New York Times: Just weeks before the Toner event, the New York Times broke the news about Clinton’s exclusive use of a personal email account during her tenure as secretary of state.
As for this stated scorn for “the new speed and click bait,” that’s a sentiment that’s been expressed by the Democratic presidential nominee herself. In a podcast with Politico’s Glenn Thrush, the candidate expressed a longing for politicians of yore, who “had a period of time and space to actually think, to be private . . . and you read their biographies, their autobiographies, you know, they had time to think about what was happening and how to respond.”
Clinton campaign aides have declined to confirm the authenticity of these emails dumped by WikiLeaks, even when they contain such thoughtful and searing burn marks against the national press.
Contacted about this email chain, Clinton campaign aide Glen Caplin responded with this analysis about its provenance:
“In a brazen display of collusion, Russian state owned television continues to promote WikiLeaks’ releases even before Assange can do it even after it’s been proven beyond any reasonable doubt that the Russians are the source of the purported Podesta material. Given a third opportunity on the debate stage to admit and condemn the Kremlin’s actions, Donald Trump refused to do it and instead continues to act as Putin’s puppet despite being briefed by U.S. intelligence. It is bizarre and disqualifying that he continues to cheer on this attack on our democracy. It is time for Donald Trump to tell the American people what he knows and when he knew it.”
(c) 2016, The Washington Post ยท Erik Wemple
