And People Wonder Why Hillary Clinton Might Not Trust The Media?

Author: 
Coverage Type: 

[Commentary] Overall, think about how irresponsibly the press has handled the truly never-ending Hillary Clinton e-mail saga, and then ask yourself this: If the Democratic nominee already had lingering doubts about the press’ fairness, would the media’s performance in recent days have done anything to allay those fears? The press for years has fixated on Hillary Clinton’s relationship with the press, and specifically the idea that Hillary Clinton doesn’t like the press or trust the press, and that’s what accounts for the “famous Clinton secrecy.” As I’ve noted in the past, reporters can rarely point to any concrete evidence that Clinton disdains journalists. And with the arrival of Donald Trump’s campaign, in which the Republican regularly smears, taunts, and attacks journalists, the anti-press claim about Clinton came to be viewed as rather quaint in comparison. But it’s possible that over her 20-plus years on the national stage and having seen out-of-control “scandal” coverage up close, she maintains a certain level of well-earned distrust.

The media’s ongoing e-mail coverage since 2015 has likely done little to alter that, and especially the off-kilter and overblown FBI Director Comey coverage in recent days. Having invested thousands of hours covering the e-mail story over the last year-and-a-half, a story that has produced no criminal charges (but has produced hollow congressional hearings), the press still remains fully committed to pretending it’s a Very Big Scandal, which explained the unfettered caterwauling following the FBI news. So yes, maybe that’s one reason Clinton might distrust the press.


And People Wonder Why Hillary Clinton Might Not Trust The Media?