Is The New York Times at War With Hillary?
Does The New York Times harbor an institutional bias against the Clintons, prompting the country’s most influential newspaper to accentuate the negative and minimize the positive in portraying one of America’s more powerful political families? Of course not, says Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet. “If you look at this reasonably, there is no institutional animus toward the Clintons. I don’t buy it,” Baquet said. “I say this with all due respect to the Clintons, but politicians as a rule like to deflect criticism by blaming the press.”
Yet it is a remarkably durable accusation, going back at least to the early 1990s, when Times investigative reporter Jeff Gerth -- at the behest of then-Washington bureau chief Howell Raines -- uncorked his much-debated 1992 “Whitewater” opus, an exhaustive account of ethically problematic real estate and business dealings that ultimately led, after many improbable twists and turns, to a criminal referral, an independent counsel, and President Bill Clinton’s impeachment.
Is The New York Times at War With Hillary?