Hillary's campaign kills negative GQ story (Wizbang)

Ah, the independent press. . . Ben Smith reports for The Politico:

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.

* * * * *

There's nothing unusual about providing extra access to candidates to reporters seen as sympathetic, and cutting off those seen as hostile to a campaign.

The 2004 Bush campaign banned a New York Times reporter from Vice President Dick Cheney's jet, and Sen. Barack Obama briefly barred Fox News's Carl Cameron from campaign travel.

But a retreat of the sort GQ is alleged to have made is unusual, particularly as part of what sources described as a barely veiled transaction of editorial leverage for access.

Read the whole article at the link above. It may seem a trivial type of story to try to kill - political campaigns invariably have some "infighting" at some point - but remember this was going to run earlier this year, at a time when Barack Obama was racking up record fundraising numbers and Hillary's coronation seemed in jeopardy. The last thing they needed was for potential donors to hear about internal trouble in the campaign.

And - they didn't. All GQ's missing is the beret

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Comments (8)

Unfreakinbelievable. Imagi... (Below threshold)

1. Posted by Jo | September 24, 2007 6:56 PM | Score: 3 (3 votes cast)

Jo:

Unfreakinbelievable. Imagine if Bush did something like this.

Back when the Clintons were in power, someone dared to write a piece on Chelsea in the Stanford campus paper. They didn't make that mistake again! Uh, mainly because they were fired.

And they call Bush an intimidating bully?

Bwahahahahahahahahahaa......liberals are idiots.

Posted on September 24, 2007 18:56

They were probably afraid t... (Below threshold)

2. Posted by LaMedusa | September 24, 2007 9:22 PM | Score: 3 (3 votes cast)

LaMedusa:

They were probably afraid the story would be boring and seem to "typical" to be news. :p

Posted on September 24, 2007 21:22

Go to hell Hilary and ta... (Below threshold)

3. Posted by RobLACal | September 24, 2007 9:58 PM | Score: 3 (3 votes cast)

RobLACal:

Go to hell Hilary and take many with you. Your cankles and cackles will not be missed.

Posted on September 24, 2007 21:58

Seems as thought the Clinto... (Below threshold)

4. Posted by Zelsdorf Ragshaft III | September 25, 2007 2:03 AM | Score: 3 (3 votes cast)

Zelsdorf Ragshaft III:

Seems as thought the Clinton machine is still fuctioning. As a criminal enterprize they have no match. I sometimes wonder why the media is willing to trade their limited credibility to support people like the Clintons who only have their own interests in mind? If Hillary is elected President, we all lose.

Posted on September 25, 2007 02:03

Of course thats where her f... (Below threshold)

5. Posted by Spurwing Plover | September 25, 2007 2:46 PM | Score: 1 (1 votes cast)

Spurwing Plover:

Of course thats where her flying monkeys come in for use TIME TO BREAK OUT THE PHASER RIFLES AND START SOME SERUOUS FLY MONKEY ERADICATIONS. DISINTAGRATIONS

Posted on September 25, 2007 14:46

Hillery will not be the can... (Below threshold)

6. Posted by nogo war | September 25, 2007 5:33 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)

nogo war:

Hillery will not be the candidate...
Dems know who is the most electable..
(Check the hair boy you folks mock)
Four new SurveyUSA surveys in Virginia, New Mexico, Iowa, Missouri of about 500 registered voters in each state (conducted 9/14 through 9/16) finds:

* Virginia:
Clinton 50%, Giuliani 44%
Clinton 50%, Thompson 43%
Clinton 53%, Romney 38%
Obama 46%, Giuliani 45%
Thompson 47%, Obama 45%
Obama 50%, Romney 38%
Edwards 48%, Giuliani 43%
Edwards 49%, Thompson 39%
Edwards 52%, Romney 33%

* Missouri:
Giuliani 48%, Clinton 45%
Clinton 48%, Thompson 45%
Clinton 51%, Romney 40%
Obama 46%, Giuliani 44%
Obama 48%, Thompson 45%
Obama 51%, Romney 40%
Edwards 47%, Giuliani 42%
Edwards 50%, Thompson 40%
Edwards 56%, Romney 32%

Posted on September 25, 2007 17:33

Iowa<a href="http://... (Below threshold)

7. Posted by nogo war | September 25, 2007 5:38 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)

Iowa
http://www.surveyusa.com/client/PollReport.aspx?g= 275a3c34-9cad-41b4-a76e-78799cfa229d

New Mexico
http://www.surveyusa.com/client/PollReport.aspx?g=c5bc92a1-3400-4f7c-a28b-125c53b04200

Posted on September 25, 2007 17:38

Let's see it goes somethinh... (Below threshold)

8. Posted by jhow66 | September 25, 2007 9:54 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)

jhow66:

Let's see it goes somethinh like this: Polls are like-----------------.

Posted on September 25, 2007 21:54

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