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Hillary's Bullying the Media
Townhall.com ^ | July 23, 2014 | Brent Bozell

Posted on 07/23/2014 4:31:19 AM PDT by Kaslin

Hillary Clinton's $35 doorstop of a memoir is a flop. It was a best-seller to hard-core Democrats, but her advance is estimated at $14 million, which means Simon & Schuster is taking a bath in the hopes of publishing a future president.

Worse yet, The Washington Post reported that according to an Amazon.com measurement of which electronic books are most-read, Clinton's book came in dead last among recent political books. Every time people highlight something in a book on their Kindles, Amazon records that data. By that measure, most readers barely started it. "The deepest into 'Hard Choices' the popular highlights get is page 33, a quote about smart power. Three of the five most-popular highlights occur within the first 10 pages."

After "Hard Choices" came the anti-Hillary books. Edward Klein's "Blood Feud" claims the Clintons and the Obamas loathe each other. It replaced "Hard Choices" at the top of the best-seller list. The New York Post reported that Hillary Clinton told college friends last year that President Barack Obama was "incompetent and feckless," and charged that he had "no hand on the tiller half the time."

That sounds quite accurate -- but it's unsubstantiated. Klein's reliance on anonymous sources gives the pro-Hillary media a reason to ignore him. That doesn't mean they don't have a double standard, however. Recall NBC and others gleefully detailing the gossipy Joe McGinniss character assassination of Sarah Palin in 2011, and never mind Kitty Kelley's uber-trashy Nancy Reagan biography.

Now Daniel Halper of The Weekly Standard is "Clinton Inc.," with a new set of scandals. Among them? Politico is reporting that a source told Halper that Bill and Hillary went straight to the board of directors of General Electric in 2008 to "get back" at MSNBC host David Shuster for saying Chelsea Clinton was being "pimped out" by Hillary's campaign.

Halper's source says the Clintons told GE brass they needed "to do something" to punish Shuster. "Before long, GE's chairman Jeffrey Immelt, was on the phone with Jeff Zucker, the president and CEO of NBC Universal at the time, and (former NBC News president) Steve Capus asking, 'What the hell is going on over there? Why are my board members talking about the reporter, and why is your reporter referring to Chelsea as a prostitute?'"

Shuster apologized repeatedly on MSNBC's air and then was suspended for two weeks. Halper writes this episode sent a message to all media. "You may like Obama more than Hillary, but you'd better watch what you say because we have the power to destroy you." They "bullied a relatively obscure reporter with powerless friends and spineless bosses."

The media are continuously pressured to ignore all books that are any less adoring of Hillary than she is about herself. Politico went to Hillary spokesman Nick Merrill, who offered the usual thuggish reply: "Daniel Halper has joined the discredited and disgraced ranks of Ed Klein and Jeff Gerth. His book came and went so fast that nobody bothered to read it, and nobody will."

A thuggish response, yes. But it might end up ultimately true in media circles. The Shuster story speaks to the power of the Clinton machine. When that machine declares an author to be politically stillborn, woe to he who veers from the directive.

On Nov. 14, 2011, NBC News picked up Chelsea Clinton for a cool $600,000 a year to play reporter. Coincidence or apology?


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS:

1 posted on 07/23/2014 4:31:19 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

The MSM isn’t being bullied by Clinton...they’re lying on their backs, spread-eagle, legs apart, inviting the seduction.


2 posted on 07/23/2014 4:35:30 AM PDT by FrankR (They will become our ultimate masters the day we surrender the 2nd Amendment.)
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To: FrankR

Whoa. Great visual of the media whores but way too much this early!

*Now I can’t eat breakfast.


3 posted on 07/23/2014 4:38:58 AM PDT by OpusatFR
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To: Kaslin

Prostitute is too kind. Chelsea was an is a poli ho

( Students take courses in poli sci..... get it)


4 posted on 07/23/2014 4:41:34 AM PDT by bert ((K.E.; N.P.; GOPc.;+12 ..... Obama is public enemy #1)
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Imagine A World Without FR.......


Click The Pic To Donate

Support FR, Donate Monthly If You Can

5 posted on 07/23/2014 4:52:00 AM PDT by DJ MacWoW (The Fed Gov is not one ring to rule them all)
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To: Kaslin

May be true, but I refuse to use the term “bully” in my vocabulary. It is a socialist word.


6 posted on 07/23/2014 5:24:27 AM PDT by wolfman23601
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To: Kaslin
Every time people highlight something in a book on their Kindles, Amazon records that data.

So now you can't even read a book without being tracked, recorded and analyzed. My, how Orwellian.

7 posted on 07/23/2014 5:26:24 AM PDT by upchuck (It's a shame nobama truly doesn't care about any of this. Our country, our future, he doesn't care.)
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To: Kaslin

The Clintons have always tried to bully the media and have a lot of success in doing it. However, one of the surprises of the past couple months is that they seem a lot more willing to write bad stories about Hillary and not cover for her gaffes. Maybe the MSM finally is tired of the Clintons.


8 posted on 07/23/2014 5:29:31 AM PDT by Opinionated Blowhard ("When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.")
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To: upchuck
Every time people highlight something in a book on their Kindles, Amazon records that data.

So now you can't even read a book without being tracked, recorded and analyzed. My, how Orwellian.

And heaven help you if you highlight "offensive" passages.

I have a Kindle and rarely use it. I'll get it for books I wouldn't bother to buy at the paper price and that aren't available used. If it turns out that I really like the book, I'll stop reading the Kindle and get the paper version. I also never have highlighted, don't even know how to do it.

9 posted on 07/23/2014 5:39:04 AM PDT by NewHampshireDuo
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To: Kaslin
Every time people highlight something in a book on their Kindles, Amazon records that data. By that measure, most readers barely started it. "The deepest into 'Hard Choices' the popular highlights get is page 33, a quote about smart power. Three of the five most-popular highlights occur within the first 10 pages."

More proof Hillary's a mile wide and an eighth of an inch deep. Shallow... in every way.

10 posted on 07/23/2014 6:55:09 AM PDT by GOPJ (To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize-Voltaire)
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To: GOPJ

Her butt’s a mile wide and her chest is an inch deep.

(I can’t believe I said that!)


11 posted on 07/23/2014 6:59:51 AM PDT by wdk535
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To: wdk535
(I can’t believe I said that!)

LOL - it's OK to say that because one of the ways democrats are 'selling' Hillary is by asking us to judge based on what's between her legs rather than what's between her ears... If they want to play 'shallow/stupid' - we can play that too...

12 posted on 07/23/2014 7:27:29 AM PDT by GOPJ (To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize-Voltaire)
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To: GOPJ

Liawatha is the new media darling. Hillary is a rump roast.

Stick a fork in her, she’s done.


13 posted on 07/23/2014 8:11:27 AM PDT by EQAndyBuzz (GM is dead and Al Queada is alive.)
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