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Emails Show Politico’s Mike Allen Promised Positive Coverage of Chelsea Clinton

J.K. Trotter 11/24/15
http://gawker.com/emails-show-politico-s-mike-allen-promised-positive-cov-1744201426

Few journalists are more thoroughly connected to Washington’s power elite than Politico’s Chief White House correspondent Mike Allen. But as newly released emails between the veteran reporter and a former State Department official show, Allen’s coveted access sometimes comes at the cost of his own credibility—as well as Politico’s reputation as an adversarial news outlet.

Gawker has received another batch of Hillary Clinton aide Philippe Reines’ emails with reporters while working for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Among Reines’ more frequent correspondents, it turns out, is Mike Allen.

In an email dated January 10, 2013 and addressed to Reines, then serving as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Allen floated the idea of interviewing Clinton’s adult daughter, Chelsea, during an upcoming brunch hosted by Politico.

What makes Allen’s ask unusual is that he appears to assure Reines that he’ll produce totally positive coverage of Chelsea Clinton :

This would be a way to send a message during inaugural week: No one besides me would ask her a question, and you and I would agree on them precisely in advance. This would be a relaxed conversation, and our innovative format (like a speedy Playbook Breakfast) always gets heavy social-media pickup. The interview would be “no-surprises”: I would work with you on topics, and would start with anything she wants to cover or make news on. Quicker than a network hit, and reaching an audience you care about with no risk.

Allen apparently received the go-ahead from Reines, because in an another email sent an hour later, he wrote to Reines :

Will def. write Matt if that’s what you recommend. I was just hoping for your confidential advice on what topics they’re most interested in — what might maximize chances. I think this is something she would like: a way to send a message on a big weekend, but in a no-risk way, since they know I would stick to topics we agree on.

(“Matt” appears to refer to Chelsea Clinton’s spokesman, Matt McKenna, who now works for Uber. Records of the live event Allen was organizing—the Inauguration 2013 New Leaders Brunch—indicate that Clinton ultimately declined Allen’s generous offer not to ask her any questions that she didn’t already know about.)

Allen’s eager attempt to draft “no-risk” interview questions with Chelsea Clinton’s camp is especially noteworthy given Allen’s public opposition to low-risk interviews with powerful figures. Just five weeks after he contacted Reines, Allen and his colleague Jim VandeHei published an infamous “Behind the Curtain” column concerning the Obama White House’s attempts to steer various media narratives about the presidency. One of the pair’s main complaints centered on Obama’s preference for “softball interviews”:

The super-safe, softball interview is an Obama specialty. The kid glove interview of Obama and outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by Steve Kroft of CBS’s “60 Minutes” is simply the latest in a long line of these. Obama gives frequent interviews (an astonishing 674 in his first term, compared with 217 for President George W. Bush, according to statistics compiled by Martha Joynt Kumar, a political scientist at Towson University), but they are often with network anchors or local TV stations, and rarely with the reporters who cover the White House day to day.

In Chelsea Clinton’s case, Allen pledged much more than a “super-safe, softball interview”—he literally promised her team total and precise control over the interview questions he would pose to her.

(Allen seems to take a dim view of the specific practice of using pre-screened interview questions as well. His August 19, 2015 Playbook newsletter linked to and quoted from an article by former Politico reporter Dylan Byers regarding the Scott Walker campaign’s policy of screening reporters’ questions about the Wisconsin governor’s plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act: “The Scott Walker campaign is quickly building a reputation as the most press-averse group in the Republican field.”)

Mike Allen, Politico editor Susan Glasser, and Politico editor-in-chief John F. Harris did not respond to detailed inquiries about their outlet’s view of providing questions to interview subjects before the interview takes place.

Update, 3:15 p.m.: One hour after this post was published, Politico editor Susan Glasser provided the statement below to Gawker. In it, she appears to disapprove of Allen’s conduct:

Keenan—sorry to be late on this but I hope you can add this quick statement from POLITICO here:

We didn’t end up doing any interview with Chelsea Clinton and we have a clear editorial policy of not providing questions to our guests in advance.

Thank you for reaching out,
Susan

Reines, who left the State Department in 2013, did not respond to a request for comment. A official for the agency told Gawker, “The Department doesn’t comment on ongoing litigation.”

Politico’s Mike Allen Apologizes for Promising Chelsea Clinton ‘No-Risk’ Questions by Ken Meyer November 30th, 2015 http://www.mediaite.com/online/politicos-mike-allen-apologizes-for-promising-chelsea-clinton-no-risk-questions/ Politico’s White House Correspondent Mike Allen gave a “my bad” today in response to how he tried to score an interview with Chelsea Clinton by promising a “relaxed” and “no-risk” discussion with pre-arranged questions. Allen was taken to task by Gawker last week, after a Freedom of Information Act request turned up a series of emails from Philippe Reines, an employee of the State Department under Hillary Clinton. Allen said in his emails that he and Reines would “agree on [questions] precisely in advance,” and that the Chelsea Clinton could pick whatever subject she wanted to talk about. During Politico’s morning email today, Allen conceded that his email was “clumsy” as it was written, and that Gawker was right to call him out on it. He tried to back up his defense by referencing Politico’s “spontaneous, conversational” event interviews, but also said he never provided sources with questions in advance and would not do so in the future. “In the email, I said I’d agree to the questions in advance. I have never done that, and would never do that,” Allen said. “POLITICO has a policy against it, and it would make for a boring event… Without stunts or grandstanding, we challenge guests to address newsworthy topics, and to be original, relevant and revelatory. A scripted back-and-forth would be a snore.” Allen also elaborated that the interview never ended up happening, and that the email “makes [him] cringe” for what it suggested he was proposing. “My bond with readers and newsmakers is built on knowing I don’t pull punches. So I wanted to share my take on this, and make sure our policy is clear,” Allen said.

TRY AGAIN:

Politico’s Mike Allen Apologizes for Promising Chelsea Clinton ‘No-Risk’ Questions

by Ken Meyer November 30th, 2015
http://www.mediaite.com/online/politicos-mike-allen-apologizes-for-promising-chelsea-clinton-no-risk-questions/

Politico’s White House Correspondent Mike Allen gave a “my bad” today in response to how he tried to score an interview with Chelsea Clinton by promising a “relaxed” and “no-risk” discussion with pre-arranged questions.

Allen was taken to task by Gawker last week, after a Freedom of Information Act request turned up a series of emails from Philippe Reines, an employee of the State Department under Hillary Clinton. Allen said in his emails that he and Reines would “agree on [questions] precisely in advance,” and that the Chelsea Clinton could pick whatever subject she wanted to talk about.

During Politico’s morning email today, Allen conceded that his email was “clumsy” as it was written, and that Gawker was right to call him out on it. He tried to back up his defense by referencing Politico’s “spontaneous, conversational” event interviews, but also said he never provided sources with questions in advance and would not do so in the future.

“In the email, I said I’d agree to the questions in advance. I have never done that, and would never do that,” Allen said. “POLITICO has a policy against it, and it would make for a boring event... Without stunts or grandstanding, we challenge guests to address newsworthy topics, and to be original, relevant and revelatory. A scripted back-and-forth would be a snore.”

Allen also elaborated that the interview never ended up happening, and that the email “makes [him] cringe” for what it suggested he was proposing.

“My bond with readers and newsmakers is built on knowing I don’t pull punches. So I wanted to share my take on this, and make sure our policy is clear,” Allen said.

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