Conde Nast and the Clintons Question: MSNBC this a.m.

[amandabeech]

I was flipping channels this morning, and I saw on Scarborough (yes, I know) someone from OK Magazine (I think) talking about some story about the Clintons killed by Conde Nast.

I can't find anything on Google.

Did anyone else see this? I only saw the last 30 seconds.

I'm not a big Clinton supporter for the primaries, but certainly will vote for her in the general, so don't flame too badly.

Just curious.

[Reno.Muse]

1. they have a promo interview with Clinton in September's issue, lots of stuff linked too

snippety:

I am reading the newspapers in Emperor Humayun's paradisiacal New Delhi gardens. The Times of India's special report on Indian religiosity reveals that forty-nine percent of respondents believe God is both male and female and would manifest in human form as both. I absorb this while waiting to join former president Bill Clinton and his entourage, who are occupied this December morning by a private reception for donors to the William J. Clinton Foundation, the philanthropic organization of global ambitions founded by Clinton in 2001. Later this afternoon, we will embark on a journey that will take us, in the space of a week, to South India, Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, and Vietnam, while Clinton makes his final visit to selected sites as UN special envoy for tsunami recovery, and to AIDS clinics served by the Clinton Foundation.

A few days earlier, I was in New York City, sitting in the Clinton Foundation headquarters on 125th Street in Harlem, surrounded by boxes of wrapped Christmas presents embossed with the presidential seal in gold. I was hoping to find out exactly where and when we might be going. The Clinton staff were still playing chess with stops and schedules—which of the tsunami sites he would be visiting, and how to coordinate dates for meetings with prime ministers and health ministers who had agreed to sign memorandums of understanding in connection with the foundation's AIDS programs. Clinton works closely with heads of governments. "Whether they can help you a lot or not, it's impossible to conceive of succeeding if they're not for you," he explained to me, "so you can't go in unless you get the ground rules clear, unless they really want you." Another challenge is Clinton's own voracity for travel. Eric Nonacs, one of his policy advisers, says with the faintest hint of exasperation, "Of course, Bill Clinton wants to visit every place at once."


http://www.concierge.com/cntraveler/articles/detail?articleId=11337

[npincus]

2. Huffpo has the article somewhere

Arianna's not a big HRC fan.

[BeyondGeography]

3. They supposedly killed an article about Team Clinton infighting in GQ

by threatening to cut off access to Bill:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/09/24/clinton-campaign-kills-ne_n_65665.html

[Atman]

4. A couple of things about this...

Yes, apparently the Clinton campaign threatened GQ Magazine in order to kill a negative story about turmoil inside Hillary Clinton's organization. The threat was that they'd deny access to the campaign. GQ was about to feature Bill Clinton on the cover as their Man Of The Year. They'd already done the story, all the reporting was done, so some questioned "What's the big deal."

Indeed. There is no big deal, although Joe Scarborough sure wanted to make it one. Here's the thing though; this happens all the time in the magazine publishing industry. I know, I used to publish a real live newsstand magazine (a surf mag, actually), and even in the surfing industry the same games were played. We'll feature your guy on the cover if you sign a big ad contract. Some advertiser would threaten to pull his ads because of a negative story. A sponsored surfer would threaten not to allow his photos to be used if we didn't run some other photo. Whatever.

The point is, this just isn't a real story. It's just the daily business of magazine publishing, and as Joe's guest had to point out to him, GQ stands for "Gentleman's Quarterly." It's a freaking fashion and style magazine, not a political magazine. So the hell what if they lose access. Except for that maybe Clinton would also cut off access to all of Conde Naste's publications, which also include Vanity Fair, which DOES cover lots of politics. Would she really do this during an election year? Cut off a source of free publicity? Hard to say. But either way, the whole story is much ado about nothing.

.

[illinoisprogressive]

5. would it have anything to do with the GQ story? Here is the link

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0907/5992.html

I am guessing this is what it was about.

[illinoisprogressive]

6. Scarborough is a big Hillary cheerleader

[amandabeech]

7. Thanks for the info everyone!!!

n/t