The beat goes on: Partisan ‘journalists’ exposed by WikiLeaks will also cover Trump White House

by WorldTribune Staff, January 3, 2017

If you can’t beat Trump, stay on the Trump beat.

Many of the same “journalists” who were revealed in WikiLeaks’ publication of emails from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton campaign chair John Podesta to have worked in close coordination with the Clinton campaign have not been removed from their beats and will also be covering the Trump White House.

journalists who will cover the Trump White House were named as personal favorites of Clinton campaign staffers. /AP
Some journalists who will cover the Trump White House were named as personal favorites of Clinton campaign staffers. /AP

Last month, The New York Times announced it would bring on Politico reporter Glenn Thrush to cover the Trump administration. Emails released by WikiLeaks showed Thrush sending stories to Clinton staffers for approval before publication.

On April 17, 2015, Thrush sent an email to Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri with the subject line: “pls read asap — the [Jennifer Palmieri] bits — don’t share.”

Palmieri forwarded Thrush’s email to other Clinton campaign staffers, writing: “He did me courtesy of sending what he is going to say about me. Seems fine.”

Other journalists who will cover the Trump White House were named as personal favorites of Clinton campaign staffers, according to a report by The Daily Caller on Jan. 2.

New York Times Magazine chief national correspondent Mark Leibovich was described as “sympathetic” to the Clinton campaign. WikiLeaks emails revealed Leibovich giving Palmieri “veto” power over which anecdotes he would include in his stories, the report said.

Another document in the leak revealed the campaign’s strategies for placing stories with friendly journalists and described the New York Times’ Maggie Haberman (who was then with Politico) as a “friendly journalist.”

“We have has a very good relationship with Maggie Haberman of Politico over the last year. We have had her tee up stories for us before and have never been disappointed,” the memo said.

CNBC chief political correspondent and New York Times political writer John Harwood was also revealed as a Democrat partisan in his email exchanges with Podesta.

In a December 2015 email to Podesta, Harwood claimed the Republican Party was “veering off the rails” and bragged about provoking Trump during a Republican presidential debate, where he asked Trump if he was running “a comic book version of a presidential campaign.”

“I imagine…” Harwood titled the email, continuing in the body: “…that Obama feels some (sad) vindication at this demonstration of his years-long point about the opposition party veering off the rails. I certainly am feeling that way with respect to how I questioned Trump at our debate.”

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