Bunker Hillary

BUNKER HILLARY
Reporters who have covered the hyper-vigilant Clinton campaign say that no detail or editorial spin is too minor to draw a rebuke. Even seasoned political journalists describe reporting on Sen Hillary Clinton (D-NY) as a torturous experience. Though few dare offer specifics for the record, they recount excruciating battles to secure basic facts. Innocent queries are met with deep suspicion. Only surgically precise questioning yields relevant answers. Sen Clinton's aides don't hesitate to use access as a blunt instrument, as when they killed off a negative GQ story on the campaign by threatening to stop cooperating with a separate Bill Clinton story the magazine had in the works. Reporters' jabs and errors are long remembered, and no hour is too odd for an angry phone call. Clinton aides are especially swift to bypass reporters and complain to top editors. "They're frightening!" says one reporter who has covered Sen Clinton. "They don't see [reporting] as a healthy part of the process. They view this as a ruthless kill-or-be-killed game."
http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=6e01fdce-ad97-4dab-a07d-bf98dc...