Tag: jill abramson
Only The Ballot Box Can Beat Clinton, Not Bogus ‘Scandals’

Only The Ballot Box Can Beat Clinton, Not Bogus ‘Scandals’

Fearless prediction: no legalistic deus ex machina will descend to save the nation from the dread specter of President Hillary Rodham Clinton. No cigar-smoking duck like the one on the old Groucho Marx program, no Kenneth Starr-style “independent” prosecutor, no criminal indictment over her “damn emails,” no how, no way.’

Ain’t gonna happen.

Voters who can’t bear the thought of the former first lady, U.S. Senator, and Secretary of State taking the oath of office in January 2017 are going to have to do it the old-fashioned way: defeat her at the polls.

Those impassioned Trump supporters holding “Hillary for Prison” signs are sure to be disappointed. Again. Played for suckers by a scandal-mongering news media that declared open season on Clinton 25 years ago. And haven’t laid a glove on her yet.

Which doesn’t exactly make her Mother Theresa. But it does lend credence to former New York Times editor Jill Abramson’s somewhat surprising column in The Guardian to the effect that, when push comes to shove, “Hillary Clinton is fundamentally honest and trustworthy.”

Surprising because from 1992 onward the New York Times has been de facto World Headquarters of what I’ve always called the “National Bitch Hunt.” However, after spending years probing Clinton’s “business dealings, her fundraising, her foundation and her marriage,” Abramson’s been forced to conclude that said investigations all came to naught.

And whose fault it that? Why Hillary’s, of course. “Some of it she brings on herself,” Abramson thinks “by insisting on a perimeter or ‘zone of privacy’ that she protects too fiercely. It’s a natural impulse, given the level of scrutiny she’s attracted, more than any male politician I can think of.”

Well, some might argue that the years-long scrutiny of Bill Clinton’s zipper is comparable. However, being wrongfully labeled a “congenital liar” in the Times20 years ago certainly might teach a girl to play her cards close. If not, being accused in a dear friend’s suicide (Vince Foster), might tend to make her, oh, a tad mistrustful of the press.

But enough ancient history, although few of the 40 percent of Democrats who tell pollsters they don’t trust her know it. Abramson is also right to say that Hillary “was colossally stupid to take those hefty speaking fees, but not corrupt. There are no instances I know of where Clinton was doing the bidding of a donor or benefactor.”

Even as somebody aware that Bill and Hillary Clinton have donated roughly $18 million in speaking fees to charity, I find the sums Goldman, Sachs paid her preposterous. But payola?

As the late Molly Ivins put it: “As they say around the Texas Legislature, if you can’t drink their whiskey, screw their women, take their money, and vote against ’em anyway, you don’t belong in office.”

But back to Hillary’s emails. From the onset of the Clinton Wars, it’s been my experience that when the corrections and retractions reach critical mass and the “investigative” articles start to read like Henry James novels—i.e. diffuse and impenetrable—the end of a given “scandal” episode is near.

Last July, the New York Times got things started with an anonymously sourced exclusive claiming that federal investigators had initiated a “criminal” probe into whether Secretary Clinton had sent classified documents on her personal email server. Almost everything important about the story was false. It wasn’t a criminal investigation, nor was Clinton a target.

Rather, it was a bureaucratic exercise to settle an inter-agency dispute about which messages to release—as Clinton herself had requested. The Times was so laggard about making corrections that Public Editor Margaret Sullivan thought readers “deserve a thorough, immediate explanation from the top.”

They never got it.

Now comes the Washington Post with an interminable 5000-word narrative anchored by an “eye-popping” claim that according to “a lawmaker briefed by FBI Director James B. Comey,” a small army of 147 FBI agents was at work deciding if a crime had been committed.

That one fell apart overnight. Last time I checked, NBC’s sources said maybe a dozen agents are involved—an order of magnitude fewer than the Post claimed.

Meanwhile, the American Prospect turned to former Homeland Security classification expert Richard Lempert. Currently a Michigan law professor, Lempert pointed out that there are two big problems with the idea of charging Hillary.

First, we don’t have ex post facto laws. You can’t classify something tomorrow and charge somebody with leaking it yesterday. If you could, working for the State Department would be like inhabiting a cubicle in Orwell’s Ministry of Truth. Nobody would ever be safe.

Second, the job of Secretary of State’s entails considerable powers: “Not only was Secretary Clinton the ultimate authority within the State Department to determine whether…information should be classified, but she was also the ultimate authority in determining whether classified information should be declassified.”

Another ballyhooed scandal goes up in smoke.

Photo: REUTERS/David McNew

Why Do Voters Say Hillary Clinton Is Untrustworthy?

Why Do Voters Say Hillary Clinton Is Untrustworthy?

Hillary Clinton is not trustworthy.

That’s the belief of many, many Americans – and in this case, let’s exclude the right-wing orthodoxy, who have hated Hillary since she first said she’d rather not stay home baking chocolate-chip cookies in 1992.

Forty percent of Democratic primary voters, according to March CBS/New York Times poll, believe that Mrs. Clinton is politically calculating; somone they don’t trust with the presidency. She’s been asked about it in debates and on the stump, and there’s a whole genre of literature devoted to her “fabrications.”

But even journalists like Jill Abramson, who has covered Clinton for decades as the the New York Times’ Washington bureau chief, managing editor and executive editor, have defended Clinton against mostly-baseless accusations that she is “dishonest.”

Abramson, in an op-ed in The Guardian, writes that while Hillary has shown bad judgment before – she specifically refers to her use of a private email server while Secretary of State, over which Clinton will be speaking to the FBI, and her taking Wall Street money for speeches she’s given – she suffers from a level of scrutiny not given to male candidates, and her long record in politics gives her opponents ample fodder.

This type of criticism, which many use as a feminist defense, might fall on hostile ears. But as Chaz Pazienza argues in The Daily Banter, it’s Clinton’s reputation, for good or for ill, that makes it so impossible for many voters to look at her objectively:

The “personality” that’s been sold to the American electorate is largely manufactured, and not by Clinton herself (another facet of the smear: that she’s a phony). The reality is that Clinton was one of the most liberal members of the Senate during her time there, ranking within ten points of progressive messiah Bernie Sanders and her history as a crusader for progressive causes is precisely what so motivated the GOP to destroy her in the first place. As far as the right was concerned, Clinton stepped far over the line when she pushed for healthcare reform way back in 1993 and her activist past informed a future as a “difficult woman.”

Even using objective measures of trustworthiness, like Politifact’s Truth-O-Meter scale, she rates as the most honest compared to every other candidate in the 2016 race. (Let’s not even go into the GOP frontrunner, who’s entire candidacy is based upon saying the most outrageous lie he can think of in any given moment.)

But unlike other politicians, the supposed scandals stick. You might be sick of hearing about Hillary’s damn emails, but they’re still getting coverage.

Hillary has learned to become guarded through her decades in public life. When the most intimate details of your life are splayed across front pages for everyone to see – and judge and scold and criticize – it’s natural that she would carefully take pains to draw her private life around her as much as possible. And that’s made blunders about her lack of transparency – like not releasing transcripts of her private speeches to Wall Street – make her look like she’s hiding something, even if it’s just embarrassment or hypocrisy.

As Abramson points out, this doesn’t mean that Hillary is above scrutiny, and she’s not excusing her record. But Abramson isn’t alone in finding Clinton’s “liar” reputation extremely dubious.

After all, America has elected prevaricating politicians before.

Photo: Hillary Clinton: Whoever you want her to be? REUTERS/Mike Stone

Former NYT Executive Editor Tells Politico: The Times Gives Hillary Clinton Unfair Scrutiny

Former NYT Executive Editor Tells Politico: The Times Gives Hillary Clinton Unfair Scrutiny

This article originally appeared in Media Matters.

According to Politico’s Glenn Thrush, Jill Abramson, the former New York Times executive editor, said in a recent interview that she agreed with Media Matters founder David Brock that the Times has given an unfair “level of scrutiny” to Hillary Clinton.

Over the past year, the Times has repeatedly bungled reporting on Hillary Clinton’s use of email, falsely claiming in a July report that Clinton was under criminal investigation, a story for which they issued numerous corrections. The Times’ public editor Margaret Sullivan criticized the paper for publishing a “sensational” story with “major journalistic problems.” In response to that report and several other issues with the paper’s journalism David Brock called on the Times to commission a review of its reporting on Clinton.

Politico’s Glenn Thrush reported March 21 that Abramson, in an interview, said she “agree[d]” with Brock that the Times gave the Clintons “an unfair ‘level of scrutiny,'” saying Hillary Clinton “‘does get more scrutiny” than other candidates – especially male candidates.'” From Politico:

A couple of years back, a friend of Hillary Clinton’s told me the candidate-to-be was “disappointed” that the first woman to edit the New York Times — veteran investigative reporter Jill Abramson — wasn’t more sympathetic to her plight as a feminist pioneer in politics.

In fact, both the candidate and her more volatile spouse went a lot further, venting to people around them that they saw the country’s most powerful paper as a kind of special prosecutor in a blue plastic bag, whose top editors were bent on scouring them with an alacrity not directed at other politicians (“They are out to get us,” the former president told a friend more recently).

No way, says Abramson, whose personal association with the Clintons goes back nearly 40 years. (Little-known fact: the woman who led coverage of the Clintons at the Times for a decade — as Washington bureau chief, and then as executive editor — briefly worked as a consultant on one of Bill Clinton’s campaigns in Arkansas.) But Abramson lingers on the larger point of media fairness to Hillary Clinton, and gingerly concedes something few editors would ever admit.

“She does get more scrutiny” than other candidates – especially male candidates, Abramson told me during a 50-minute interview for POLITICO’s “Off Message” podcast last week. When I asked her if Clinton’s arch-defender David Brock had a point when he lashed the Times for giving the Clintons an unfair “level of scrutiny,” she interrupted – to agree.

“Yeah, I do,” said Abramson – who was ousted in 2014 after reportedly complaining that her compensation package was inferior to that of her male predecessor, Bill Keller.

“[W]e, for some reason, expect total purity from a woman candidate,” added Abramson, who rose to the top job in 2011. “I did not feel, during my regime, that we were giving her way more scrutiny than anyone else.” But, she said, “Where I think Hillary Clinton faces, you know, certainly more of a burden is that the controversies she’s been in are immediately labeled, you know, Travel-gate or Email-gate… if you actually asked people what about any of these controversies bothers them, they don’t know anything specific about any of them.”

[…]

And Abramson isn’t overly impressed by the one Clinton storyline getting the most attention: the lingering probe into the former secretary of state’s “homebrew” email server during her Foggy Bottom tenure. Like Whitewater, the scandal was uncovered by a New York Times reporter; like Whitewater, it is regarded as a deus ex machina by Republicans facing political gloom; and like Whitewater, it will likely turn out to be more froth than flood, in Abramson’s view. “I won’t say nothing – but very little,” she said, referring to the sum significance of Clinton’s scandals.

When I asked if the Times email stories (executed after her departure, in 2015) were “a big deal,” Abramson – who has taken pains not to criticize her former paper or its current editors – paused.

“It depends on, you know, what your definition of “big deal” is, but I’m not going to play Bill Clinton for you here,” she said, referring to the former president’s infamous what-is-is monologue during his Monica Lewinsky deposition. “The issue, to me, that’s at the crux is that everything that we know that was classified was classified after the fact, after the emails were sent. And so, why is that a big deal? And the fact that she had this private email is something that, you know, I’ve read widely, a lot of people in the government – Colin Powell, let’s face it, got much bigger speaking fees than Hillary did.”

Photo: Flickr user Scott Beale.

Former New York Times Editor Tells Grads She Will Continue In Journalism

Former New York Times Editor Tells Grads She Will Continue In Journalism

By Mark Washburn, The Charlotte Observer

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — In her first public remarks since her abrupt dismissal as executive editor of The New York Times, Jill Abramson told Wake Forest University graduates Monday that she doesn’t know what she will do next, “so I’m in exactly the same boat as many of you.”

Removed Wednesday from the top news job at the nation’s foremost newspaper in a move that touched off discussions about gender equity and modern management style, Abramson threw out her prepared speech, “The Importance of a Truly Free Press,” and focused instead on the theme of resilience — personal and professional.

Abramson said her sister called the day after her firing and told her that their father would be just as proud of her now in watching her deal with her dismissal as he would be by her leadership at the Times. “Show us what you are made of, he would say,” Abramson said.

So, she told students, remember that when faced with a rejection letter or you miss out on a job opportunity. “Now I’m talking to anyone who’s been dumped,” she said: “When that happens, show what you are made of.”

Abramson, 60, found herself in the role of newsmaker rather than journalist Monday, and appeared comfortable with the reversal. She smiled for a scrum of photographers as she approached the dais in the commencement procession, blue jeans and sneakers peeking out beneath her ceremonial robe.

Abramson was the newspaper’s first female executive editor, one of the paramount positions in American media. She served as the paper’s Washington editor and managing editor before assuming the top role in 2011.

In the wake of her firing, media writer Ken Auletta of the New Yorker magazine reported that Abramson had hired a lawyer to negotiate a recent pay raise after learning her compensation wasn’t as high as her male predecessor. Her sometimes-brusque management style became a point of discussion as well, with some commentators asking whether it would have been an issue if she were male.

Over the weekend, Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. released a statement clarifying his reasons for the firing. Abramson, he said, had lost the support of key top executives, “and could not win it back.” Sulzberger said seeking a raise played no part in the move.

“During her tenure, I heard repeatedly from her newsroom colleagues, women and men, about a series of issues, including arbitrary decision-making, a failure to consult and bring colleagues with her, inadequate communication and the public mistreatment of colleagues,” Sulzberger’s statement said.

Sulzberger said he addressed the issues with Abramson, including during a recent job evaluation, and that she acknowledged there were problems. “We all wanted her to succeed,” he said.

Monday was Abramson’s turn to talk, though she did not address the reasons for her firing.

She said the overall work of journalism helps keep democracy resilient and she intends to continue in the profession in a yet-to-be-determined role.

She said she was proud of her tenure at the Times. “It was the honor of my life to lead the newsroom,” she said.

Abramson is known to have at least two tattoos, one of them the Times old English “T” corporate logo. She said she was asked Sunday night by some Wake Forest students whether she would have it removed.

“Not on your life!” she told graduates.

Abramson said the only hesitation she had about keeping her appointment, made in March, to address graduates in front of Wait Chapel was the “small media circus following me would detract attention away from you. What total knock-outs you are.”

AFP Photo/Emmanuel Dunand