For those of you who pretend there is no politically liberal bias among the national media, consider these two recent events involving Hillary Clinton.
First, national press reporters actually allowed Hillary’s staff members to keep them at bay within two ropes the staffers held at a 4th of July Parade in New Hampshire. Why? Hillary wanted them far enough away from her campaigning so they could not hear what she was saying to potential voters. The reporters dutifully obeyed.
CNN and New York Times reporters briefly feigned outrage when the pictures of them being herded with Hillary’s ropes embarrassingly hit the internet.
Hillary’s campaign responded, telling CNN, “While the GOP might want to spin a good yarn on this, let’s not get tied up in knots. We wanted to accommodate the press, allow (Clinton) greet voters (sic.) And allow the press to be right there in the parade with her, as opposed to preset locations.”
Again and again, Hillary pretends Republicans make up stories about her behavior and expects the press to acquiesce. Which they are now doing by “forgetting” the abuse.
Would the story be “over” now if Sarah Palin rope-a-doped the national press with real ropes?
Dodging the press for months, CNN obviously allowed Hillary to choose her first interview to be with Brianna Keilar, a former “Morning Zoo” DJ and journalism lightweight best known as the reporter whose most poignant question to President Obama in his year-end press conference was, “What’s your New Year’s resolution?”
Questioning Hillary about using a personal email server while Secretary of State and deleting thousands of emails, Brianna demonstrated her lack of knowledge and submissiveness.
Hillary claimed she did not break any laws or regulations by using a personal server instead of federal government server for her official communications, further claiming that “previous Secretaries of State have said they did the same thing.”
Brianna’s “follow-up” question came off as Kabuki theater, saying, “But you said they... that they did the same thing, that they used a personal server and while facing a subpoena, deleted emails from them?”
This was one of those questions that a hardened reporter would use to break down the subject’s defenses, knowing a strong counter-attack is coming from a politician who has successfully defended herself against numerous well-founded accusations of wrongful behaviors.
Hillary’s counter-attack was devastating.
Glaring at the inexperienced Brianna, Clinton condescendingly intoned, “You know, you’re starting with so many assumptions that are... I’ve never had a subpoena.”
(There is actually an outstanding subpoena re: Benghazi that includes the server emails.) Looking straight into Brianna’s eyes, she gestures “calm down” with her hands and commands, “There is... let’s take a deep breath here. (The “don’t mess with me glare” returns) Everything I did was permitted with law and regulation. I had one device. When I mailed anyone in the government it would go into the government system.” She said she didn’t have to turn over any emails - she chose to do that.
At this point, a prepared, nonpartisan journalist would challenge Hillary with questions about violating the 2005 “clear cut” State Department directive that all day-to-day communications be conducted using government systems, challenge her claim that she needed to carry only “one device” when she’s been often photographed carrying two or three, or perhaps challenge her assertion that she “did not email any classified material to anyone on my email.” A State Department official said that was “highly unlikely” and it dodges the State Department concern of potential “sensitive” information, not merely “classified.”
Brianna’s response was to laugh and giggle with Hillary like besties about silly emails Hillary would rather discuss.
Questions about Hillary’s obvious foundation scheme of bribes-for-policy from foreign governments was off the table in favor of questions about Saturday Night Live and how Hillary feels about Republicans.
Perhaps they discussed Brianna’s attendance at the wedding of Hillary’s “grassroots” campaign director “off-camera.”
Rick Jensen is Delaware’s award-winning conservative talk show host on WDEL, streaming live on WDEL.com from 1pm - 4pm EST. Contact Rick at rick@wdel.com, or follow him on Twitter @Jensen1150WDEL