Why Did GQ Kill This Story About the Clinton Campaign? --->>>

[Stephanie]

The Clintons are threatening news outlets that don't play ball? And GQ gave in to the pressure? That's so Rovian. WTF?

From Maureen Dowd on Sunday:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/30/opinion/30dowd.html?_r=1&n=Top/Opinion/Editorials%20and%20Op-Ed/Op-Ed/Columnists/Maureen%20Dowd&oref=slogin

Conceding to Charlie Gibson last week that “dynasties are not good for America,” Bill said: “If you go out and you fight fair, and you win it on your own, that’s not a dynasty. ... You’re not going out to vote for me for a third term.”

Of course, Hillary is never on her own. From the beginning, her campaign has relied on her husband’s donors, network, strategies and strong-arming.

GQ killed a 7,000-word article about infighting in Hillaryland after Bill Clinton’s aide told the magazine that running the piece might imperil access to Bill. The incident, as Howie Kurtz wrote in The Washington Post, reflected pressure tactics that “may be practiced with unprecedented aggressiveness by the tightly controlled Clinton media operation.”

[Doctor_J]

1. Snark. Howie complaining about media pressure by the CLINTONS???

He is shameless

[Stephanie]

2. Found some more info >

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

Early this summer, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign for president learned that the men's magazine GQ was working on a story the campaign was sure to hate: an account of infighting in Hillaryland.

So Clinton's aides pulled a page from the book of Hollywood publicists and offered GQ a stark choice: Kill the piece, or lose access to planned celebrity coverboy Bill Clinton.

Despite internal protests, GQ editor Jim Nelson met the Clinton campaign's demands, which had been delivered by Bill Clinton's spokesman, Jay Carson, several sources familiar with the conversations said. GQ writer George Saunders traveled with Clinton to Africa in July, and Clinton is slated to appear on the cover of GQ's December issue, in which it traditionally names a "Man of the Year," according magazine industry sources.

And the offending article by Atlantic Monthly staff writer Josh Green got the spike.

[book_worm]

3. another example of the weak nillies in the media who will give in to threats

[Stephanie]

4. it's disgusting

and i really don't like seeing this kind of shit from OUR side.

[acmavm]

5. If true, this says a lot about BOTH Clintons. But anything from

Dowd about them is highly suspect in my book.

[Stephanie]

6. See post #2 from HuffPost.

[madinmaryland]

7. Poor Howie and Mo aren't getting the access they want,

so that they can right nonsensical hatchet jobs about the Clintons.

:nopity:

[NashVegas]

8. Because GQ Is Spineless

It was the editor's / publisher's choice.

[Stephanie]

13. more spineless than the others?

this compares to the Rather/AWOL story in some aspects.

[NashVegas]

19. About Equal

At least CBS, Rather & Mapes did get a story out, initially.

Otherwise, GQ is no different from any publication that ever killed a story in hopes of keeping access to those it was written about.

I blame GQ, not the Clintons. Just because someone asks for something doesn't mean you have to say 'yes.'

If GQ had faith that it was a good article, worthy of defending, they should have stood behind it. If it wasn't worth defending, the editors should have blue-lined its ass.

[spanone]

9. howie says.....pffft.

[Stephanie]

10. More info, from Ben Smith >>>

<excerpt>

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0907/5992_Page2.html

Green was not a particular favorite of the Clinton campaign, however. He took the assignment from GQ not long after finishing an unflattering 13,000-word profile in the November 2006 Atlantic Monthly, which concluded that the junior Senator from New York is, more or less, a timid, calculating pol.

“Today Clinton offers no big ideas, no crusading causes — by her own tacit admission, no evidence of bravery in the service of a larger ideal. Instead, her Senate record is an assemblage of many, many small gains.

Her real accomplishment in the Senate has been to rehabilitate the image and political career of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Impressive though that has been in its particulars, it makes for a rather thin claim on the presidency. Senator Clinton has plenty to talk about, but she doesn’t have much to say,” he wrote.

The next spring, according to people with the story and sources Green spoke to, he spent digging into the tensions within Hillary Clinton’s campaign — widely speculated about among reporters, but at the same time notoriously difficult to report from a political circle known for keeping internal disputes inside the family.

In particular, a source familiar with Green’s story said, he had focused on internal criticism of the campaign manager, Patti Solis Doyle.

Green had also asked questions about the pay package of the campaign’s communications director, Howard Wolfson, who is technically a consultant and left a lucrative communications practice in New York City to take the job, and whose compensation is the subject of speculation within the campaign. (Speculation about Wolfson’s compensation, sources said, was not in Green’s final GQ draft.)

Green approached the Clinton campaign to discuss the details of the story, which he described to Wolfson over dinner at a downtown Washington, D.C. restaurant, a source familiar with the conversations said.

Soon after that, Carson, who is now Hillary Clinton’s traveling press secretary, told GQ that the former president would not cooperate with Saunders’ planned profile if Green’s piece ran.

[Zandor]

11. Hillary has good political sense.

It's called politics

[Stephanie]

12. It's Bushian.

Strong-arming the press, getting the story killed. She's no better than Dick Cheney.

[bonito]

14. K&R

[TacticalPeek]

15. If they run a hit piece on his wife, then he's supposed to help them sell their magazine?

:shrug:

I don't see anything Rovian about that judgment. GQ should have made a more provident choice of writer if they wanted the draw of the Big Dog and a campaign piece, which is possible to do by bringing less baggage. They boxed themselves in and had to cut their loss.

[Jim Sagle]

16. The story appeared to be the usual gossipy, content-free chickenshit bullshit the media spews about

EVERY Democrat.

I'm GLAD the Clintons got it killed. If you're a Democrat, you should be glad as well.

[BrightKnight]

17. "Infighting in Hillaryland" - I would not blame him if he did avoid them.

That sounds like cheap shots and tabloid trash. I would not blame him if he chose to avoid a magazine that published that kind of crap. Could they really expect him to be thrilled about it. Perhaps the magazine was leaning on them. Throw us a bone or we will publish "Infighting in Hillaryland"

The GOP thanks you.

[Celebration]

18. so what?

This is sort of interesting, but if I were Bill I would have done the same thing. I wouldn't want to be on the cover of a magazine that had run an unflattering article about my spouse. Would you guys? This isn't a threat like saying I would call every CEO of every company advertising in it and threaten them, or anything like that.

I think most people would have reacted this way.

And I am no Hillary fan.

[WilliamPitt]

20. That's a well-run campaign.

As Hunter said, the first rule of politics is "Control your environment."

If our people do this more often, maybe we won't get rolled by the god damned minority party.