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DonViejo

(60,536 posts) Thu Mar 5, 2015, 12:37 PM Mar 2015

Hillary scandal’s hidden truth: How the Beltway media embarrassed itself — again

This week brought us back to the 90s again -- and not in a good way. Here's how the press reverted to hideous form

HEATHER DIGBY PARTON

I got out my old Alanis Morrisette CD this week and listened to “You Oughta Know” for the first time in a decade or more. I had been hit with a strong sense of deja vu and it made me feel nostalgic. A Clinton scandal was burning bright and there was a feeding frenzy on cable news of which I hadn’t seen the likes since Ezra Klein was in grade school. It seems Hillary Clinton did something terrible to do with records she didn’t keep properly and “it doesn’t pass the smell test”. In any case, “where there’s smoke there’s fire”. Or it could have been fog. A light mist perhaps, who knows? But something very serious must be going on or all these people wouldn’t be talking about it, right? So they have to talk about it. Incessantly.

Just like back in the day, no one was prepared to report what was actually supposed to have been wrong about all this, of course, because it was pretty clear after the first NY Times vague report was clarified that Clinton didn’t actually break any laws and there’s no evidence she didn’t adhere to the rules that were in place during her tenure. Sure, something could be wrong with it, but until someone else does some reporting it’s important to discuss ad nauseum what “the problem” really was: this scandal, true or not, important or unimportant, “feeds the narrative” that Clinton is a person of hugely flawed character. None of them were prepared to say this themselves, of course, being unbiased reporters just reporting the facts and all. It’s just that a lot of other people think Hillary Clinton is a devious, Machiavellian control freak and therefore it’s important to report this story. Which will, of course, further feed that narrative.

This is the laziest form of political reporting and commentary imaginable. They are basically sitting around gossiping about what people in DC say about Hillary Clinton and surmising that this story will force them say it even more. Which they will because all these commentators are saying it 24/7 on cable news in a shrill, shrieking feedback loop they mistake for actual public opinion.

more
http://www.salon.com/2015/03/05/hillary_scandals_real_culprit_what_this_saga_reveals_about_the_beltway_media/

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Hillary scandal’s hidden truth: How the Beltway media embarrassed itself — again (Original Post) DonViejo Mar 2015 OP

There really is something wrong with a cabinet officer, the TOP cabinet officer, TwilightGardener Mar 2015 #1

Given the number of Bush moles in the State Departmen and what she went through with OregonBlue Mar 2015 #2

If she was mostly concerned with protecting her political skin, then she was a TwilightGardener Mar 2015 #3

I'd never accept that logic from a TeaPubliKlan in a billion years. TheKentuckian Mar 2015 #4

Then FIX government. Don't move away from it. That is a REPUBLICAN attitude to take! cascadiance Mar 2015 #5

Honestly, why doesn't she just run for the Republican nomination dirtydickcheney Mar 2015 #6

TwilightGardener

(46,416 posts)

1. There really is something wrong with a cabinet officer, the TOP cabinet officer,

Reply to DonViejo (Original post)

Thu Mar 5, 2015, 12:47 PM

Mar 2015

setting up and registering her own email server in her house, under what appears to be a fake or altered name of someone, for all of her electronic communications as SoS, in order to bypass federal control and oversight. It's wrong for security reasons, it's wrong for transparency reasons, it's wrong for records/archival reasons. I have yet to hear a VALID defense of this practice. I just keep hearing what Digby is saying, which is, "Welp, it's not ILLEGAL." What utter bullshit. It doesn't give off a whiff of impropriety, it is straight-up improper.

OregonBlue

(7,754 posts)

2. Given the number of Bush moles in the State Departmen and what she went through with

Reply to TwilightGardener (Reply #1)

Thu Mar 5, 2015, 12:50 PM

Mar 2015

all of the investigations when Bill was president, I think she was protecting herself. I have read that the State Department is the very worst when it comes to egos and gossip. So I don't blame her one bit. The GOP would have done anything to try to swiftboat her while she was Secretary. Look at Benghazi and tell me I'm wrong.

TwilightGardener

(46,416 posts)

3. If she was mostly concerned with protecting her political skin, then she was a

Reply to OregonBlue (Reply #2)

Thu Mar 5, 2015, 12:53 PM

Mar 2015

failure and a liability as SoS. It seems that job was meant to be 100% positive political showboating, and she frantically tried to control her image throughout. What really got done in her tenure?

TheKentuckian

(25,026 posts)

4. I'd never accept that logic from a TeaPubliKlan in a billion years.

Reply to OregonBlue (Reply #2)

Thu Mar 5, 2015, 12:59 PM

Mar 2015

I mean I totally get it, it just cannot be allowed to be acceptable otherwise the actual crooks will run wild on a whole new level.

cascadiance

(19,537 posts)

5. Then FIX government. Don't move away from it. That is a REPUBLICAN attitude to take!

Reply to OregonBlue (Reply #2)

Thu Mar 5, 2015, 01:10 PM

Mar 2015

As noted, the issue isn't whether what she was doing was legal or not, or whether she was abusing her office with private infrastructure or not.

The issue is that she just took the Republican solution of using a privatized solution, and in so doing destroyed the whole notion that government should be viable and a means to provide the voter a way of judging, based on its transparency, whether their politicians are doing their jobs properly.

The government process should be fixed instead of worked around it in a Republican fashion. That is what Republicans want, so that they can either corrupt the system, or claim that Democrats are hypocrites by doing what they would do, and then coming up with ways of building up what may be false claims of corruption, because there is no way using their methodology of being able to judge fairly whether a politician is doing their job or not. We're setting up the Republicans to control things the way they want to in their own corrupt fashion.

dirtydickcheney

(242 posts)

6. Honestly, why doesn't she just run for the Republican nomination

Reply to DonViejo (Original post)

Thu Mar 5, 2015, 01:37 PM

Mar 2015

... and we can all breathe a sigh of relief?

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