Just fell on this in my files:
http://www.newsmax.com/scripts/showinside.pl?a=2003/6/17/111404
Tuesday, June 17, 2003 11:03 a.m. EDT
Morris: Times Offered Clinton Deal
The New York Times wanted to see former President Clinton re-elected so badly that in 1996 it allegedly promised to go into the tank on its scandal coverage - and even gave the president an advanced list of questions for an upcoming interview.
The scathing charge that the Times allowed itself to become the public relations tool of the White House comes from former senior White House adviser Dick Morris, who details the paper's efforts as a de facto member of the Clinton campaign in his new book, "Off with Their Heads: Traitors, Crooks and Obstructionists in American Politics, Media and Business."
In excerpts published Tuesday by the New York Post, Morris reveals that he received a call from the paper's then-managing editor, Joseph Lelyveld.
"I was surprised to be asked by Lelyveld and a Times reporter to help them get an exclusive interview with the president," Morris reports.
"We've tried for months and come up empty," the Lelyveld pleaded. "Can you help get it done?"
When Morris told him that Clinton was unlikely to grant the interview because he was unhappy with the paper's scandal coverage, Lelyveld hinted at a deal.
"A worried frown clouded the editor's formerly sunny face," writes Morris, who quotes the Times decision maker as saying next, "You know, we don't think that the public cares about what happened back in Arkansas."