Posted on 09/24/2007 8:24:26 PM PDT by jdm
Both Hillary Clinton and GQ have a lot of explaining to do if the Politico has this story correct:
According to Ben Smith, Hillary's campaign pressured GQ to kill a piece critical of her by threatening to withhold Bill Clinton's cooperation in the future. The editors of GQ caved into the threat and spiked the article:
Early this summer, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign for president learned that the men’s magazine GQ was working on a story the campaign was sure to hate: an account of infighting in Hillaryland.
So Clinton’s aides pulled a page from the book of Hollywood publicists and offered GQ a stark choice: Kill the piece, or lose access to planned celebrity coverboy Bill Clinton.
Despite internal protests, GQ editor Jim Nelson met the Clinton campaign’s demands, which had been delivered by Bill Clinton’s spokesman, Jay Carson, several sources familiar with the conversations said.
Instead of running the article on Hillary Clinton, the magazine decided to opt for a December puff piece on her husband. George Saunders traveled with Clinton to Africa to write the article after GQ's surrender, and his article will run in the issue where GQ selects its Man of the Year. As Smith reports, Bill Clinton's face on a cover can help sell product -- and GQ had to sell out to get it.
That puts an interesting spin on media relations, especially by a federal elected official. While it's certainly not illegal to demand that a story not be run, and even to threaten to cut off access if it does, it makes the quid pro quo of the Clinton story arguably an in-kind donation. After all, the Clinton campaign knew it was valuable enough to buy off GQ, and the deep-six of Josh Green's article on Hillary had at least an equal value to her campaign. It also calls into question just how far the Clintons will go, once back in the White House, to pressure media outlets into shutting down critical reporting on their activities.
The Politico notes that Hollywood celebrities often pull power plays on the media in the same manner, but there's a large difference. Hollywood celebrities don't make national policy or wield governmental power. The media's job is in part to inform the American public of their performance and to keep them from becoming corrupt and unaccountable. If Hillary the candidate manages to push the media around this easily to silence criticism, imagine what Hillary the President would do to those who report negative aspects of her performance.
Does Hillary believe in a free press? It doesn't appear so, but she believes in one she can buy off cheaply.
UPDATE and BUMP: Actually, I'm in agreement with Carol Herman in that GQ deserves more ire than the Clintons in this case. Mickey Kaus puts it succinctly, as usual (via Hot Air):
Obvious Questions: Could the piece have been as bad for the Clinton camp as the publicity they're now getting? Are they still not quite operating in the internet age? ... Doesn't Bill Clinton want to be on the cover of GQ a month before the Iowa caucuses? You'd think [GQ editor Jim]Nelson would have some leverage of his own.
The Clintons can't roll over the press unless the press lets them. GQ obviously wilts under a mild amount of heat. Who else wants to publish Josh Green's piece? I'll be happy to do it, if Green doesn't take Mickey up on his offer.
As I remember, I don’t think he kept it. I read about it somewhere and called him to confirm. He confirmed.
Does anyone seriously want Hitlery Clinton for President?
Think of Jennifer Flowers: She's alive because she was so visible as to acquire an effective degree of immunity. If Hsu knows what's good for him, he'll sing to the right person and make this too big for him to just quietly disappear.
Hillary is scary.
.
HILLARY’s own self-admitted worst media worry =
“Have you seen what they’ve been saying about me ..on the Internet..?” =
HILLARY’s supporting Communist North Vietnam’s hard push to takeover the then Free South Vietnamese People during the Vietnam War ..horridly brought down upon them:
.
Pictures of a vietnamese Re-Education (SLAVE LABOR) Camp
http://www.Freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1308949/posts
.
..”JOURNEY from the FALL”.. MoviePremieres = Fall of Saigon CLARITY..
http://www.Freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1806248/posts
.
Now, in a new century, it’s OUR Freedom that’s up for grabs...
...as the same HILLARY pushes hard to take us over again
...in a new time of war being fought to the Death.
.
NEVER FORGET
.
[If you cross Bush, he’ll smile and pat you on the back.]
I think you’re right about that. For all his faults, GW does seem to have a sense of honor.
[I do wish he’d wake up and understand that politics requires you to reward your friends and punish your enemies]
I just wish he’d be a little pickier about who his friend$ are.
[”I think it’s time to send a clear message to what has become the most profitable sector in the entire economy, that they are being watched.”]
What ‘sector’ is she talking about?
It’s really petty of GQ to cave like this. Just in order to curry favor with Bill? How many stories do they plan on having about him anyway? It’s just a fashion magazine for gays anyway. Or as RFK once called it: “that fag mag”
A larger conundrum is where the NY group who claim Hsu took them for a cool $40,000000....and these were top of the line "sophisticated" investors....
My guess is they are a stalking hose for Chicom involvement....
Sooooo handy to have a domestic group "supposedly" funding Hsu for $40mill.
It just doesn't pass the smell test.
“If you don’t agree with her, you are dead.”
From what I have heard and read about the Clintons that can be applied literally in some cases.
If it weren’t for Lucianne Goldberg and the Blue Dress, Monica Lewinsky would not be among the living, either.
One wonders how many people really understand this.
Yup. These thugs know no limits, having developed a specialty in taking full advantage of a willing coroner. Whether it was Fahmy Malak (Mena), Dr. Douglas Owsley (Kennewick Man AND Waco), or the Vince Foster case.
You had me going there, for a moment.
Thought the same on the quick cave. Shows you who is more important; their entire readership. . .or Clinton, Inc.
Let me think about that one. . .
So. . .perhaps there is more implied in the threats here. The Clinton's; like any good mafiosi . .have long memories; and beyond their penchant for being very vindictive; they know control i.e. 'fear' is dependent on their acting on those memories. . .all to say; ANYone escaping their wrath weakens their reputation.
So, maybe with Hillary in the power seat - or just the one she in now, is enough to have GQ worry about whether they will be audited every year for the next ten years or their staff may have to worry about letting their pets out at night. . .or leaving their cars parked on any street. . .or they may find themselves having to worry that a 'skeleton' just might fall out of someone's closet; when that person does not want the door opened. . .
There may be a bigger picture, that is not being considered here. . .and - now that I think about it - quite suspect there is.
We know worse has happened to those who find themselves at odds with the Clinton's. . .They may stand in their way; but not for long.
(Meantime, just hoping the story and all the others. . .gets out there on the net - then the blogs. . .and then. . .on to the NYT's. lol and if wishes were horses. . .)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1901747/posts
HF
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