Control (Now I’m All Grown Up)
EmailOne thing you likely won’t read about on "HillaryHub" this morning — the fact that she and her husband, former President Bill, may have close to $50 million in the bank….As well as the fact that he earned $10.2 million in speeches last year that he gave to IBM and General Motors and other big powerful corporations that likely want to befriend not just the former president but the potential next one as well. (Read more HERE)
For the uninitiated, HillaryHub (link) is the Democratic frontrunner’s attempt to control her own media by setting up a safe Drudge-like site that links to puff pieces, good polling news, positive lefty blog reviews, and speeches via Youtube.
There’s also the occasional link to a dis — such as THIS ONE to a negative blog entry about Clinton biographer Carl Bernstein.
It’s an attempt by the control freaks at the Clinton campaign (and I use that term lovingly, Howard) to grab a hold of the Clinton image/message in an increasingly uncontrollable internet and media environment, as seen with the "1984" ad against her, or the brand spanking new "I Got a Crush on Obama" viral video (READ ABOUT IT HERE or WATCH IT HERE)
As the Politico points out in its take on HillaryHub (LINK), Team Clinton chose to announce that she had won the coveted endorsement of Steven Spielberg on HillaryHub, rather than through another venue.
Bottom line — they would prefer that you read the stories they select for you to read, not the ones we do.
Will they succeed?
– jpt
UPDATE: Since posting this blog post, those imps at the Clinton campaign have linked to this somewhat critical blog post with the title "Hillary Hub Dishes Latest Campaign News."
Clearly that’s not really quite what this blog post was about, and that gets to another way the Clinton campaign is using Hillary Hub — to frame stories the way they want them to be seen.
This was perhaps best seen by the deft way her campaign slapped down two weighty biographies by three Pulitzer Prize winning journalists, framing them as nothing new when in fact both tomes contain new and potentially damaging information (though both books contained plenty of admirable information about the Senator as well). We spoke to the co-author of "Her Way," Don Van Natta Jr, for our ABC News Shuffle podcast this week (LINK).
But now HillaryHub is taking this to a new level, framing relevant stories with the headlines they want to give them. So when The Politico posted an internal memo from the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, about how to raise expectations for Clinton’s fundraising, the HillaryHub headline was: "Obama Camp Touts Hillary’s Poll Numbers and Endorsements."
Crafty. (Suggested HillaryHub headline: "ABC News lauds Clinton’s brilliance.")
CPAC: Romney Struggles to Convince Voters 
Obama Backs Off Birth Control Battle?
Surprised that Bill/Hill have $50 million or more in the bank? Not! Surprised that Hill/Bill are control freaks and dis anyone who does not play the “game” their way? Not. Hillary may be all sorts of “good” things, but warm and/or fuzzy she isn”t.
Posted by: sophillyfatz | June 14, 2007, 11:03 am 11:03 am
I have faith that at some point B&H will learn that Americans are not as stupid as they think….the hard way
Posted by: flyover | June 14, 2007, 12:09 pm 12:09 pm
didn’t the clinton’s leave the wh with 11 mil in legal fees. paid that off. you need money to maintain two homes. they should be able to get their news out. there are so many news sources: nets, newspapers, television etc. why not have it unfiltered.
Posted by: e marie ray. broolyn, ny | June 14, 2007, 12:16 pm 12:16 pm
Jake, I love the way you guys spin even the positive into a negative when it comes to Hillary. I found your article on the Hillary Hub. This obviously is not a pro Hillary piece (imagine that) yet here it is at the HUB. There are other pieces that are less than flattering about her that I found on the HUB. Can you tell me what other candidate allows negative press about them on their site? Right, I didn’t think so.
Of course there is going to be an attempt to frame the issues. She has dealt with you guys long enough to know if she doesn’t,you will and it won’t be honest, accurate or flattering. That Jake,is called smart campaigning. If she wasn’t doing it then you would write about how stupid everybody is at the Hillary camp.
Short of leaving this planet, I don’t think there is anything she can do to please you media folks. Let me see, what exactly have you done for the country? What effort have you attached yourself to? I guess making a living off of critiquing others is your contribution. Yeah right!
Posted by: Psbro | June 14, 2007, 12:20 pm 12:20 pm
Hillary’s a control freak…. Let’s see… and GW or Cheney or Rove or Condi isn’t? Or GHWB? Or Reagan? And during a Presidential Campain??
And what’s a control freak anyhow??? Compared to someone who want’s to be in control in general. That’s a pretty lame.
Having Damage Control, especially with misinformation groups like the Rovian Swiftboaters on the loose???? Why not try to have some control???
Posted by: Roy | June 14, 2007, 12:37 pm 12:37 pm
Just imagine what she will do to the News if she is elected. She will filter everything to push her socialistic view.
The mainstream media already filters the news for her.
And for all those that think Bush or the so called rove machine filters info how come all the negative press against them. So please People see that Bush does not filter info, no matter how many times you say they are.
Liberal Propaganda at its best. Keep saying thing and hope people will follow blinded. Hilary sent the IRS while she was in her first term as president against her political enemies. what will she do if she officially becomes President. Hope you libs that support her now, never have a different opinion
Posted by: spock | June 14, 2007, 1:10 pm 1:10 pm
Oh Tapper come on !:
“This was perhaps best seen by the deft way her campaign slapped down two weighty biographies by three Pulitzer Prize winning journalists, framing them as nothing new when in fact both tomes contain new and potentially damaging information (though both books contained plenty of admirable information about the Senator as well).”
The Daily Howler’s Bob Somerby crushes the Jeff Gerth book with fact check after fact check. To pretend that Gerth has EVER written a fair word about the Clintons is ironically, so unfair. You pretend that it is somehow wrong and manipulative for the Clinton campaign to today use Somerby’s work (and crooks and liars)to point out how Bernstein has been quite confused during his book tour. I suggest that you go to today’s Howler to see just how mixed up Bernstein continues to be as he goes from show to show trying to alarm everyone just how “inauthentic” Senator Clinton “really” is. The problem now is that the accusations he is spreading in these interviews arent even in the 600 plus pages of HIS OWN BOOK! (which begs the point, then just why should one buy something that even he seems to be saying is an incomplete portrait?)
While you are there I also suggest you type your own name into his archive search so you can see just how ludicrous some of your own work really has been.
Nice smack down and simultaneous suck up move to Howard Wolfson in your post…no wonder you were able to move to, and do so well in, network news.
Posted by: tim howe | June 14, 2007, 1:10 pm 1:10 pm
I attended the Hillary Club44 Launch at 11 and H Streets, N.W. a week ago. I had a deep and profound sense that this is going to happen: we are going to have our first woman president, and that woman is going to be Hillary Rodham Clinton. I like the way they handle posts like yours. It is playful, humorous, and smart. As her campaign suggests, she is going to be an exceptional president, and we certainly need one after the debacle we have endured.
Posted by: DCDemocrat | June 14, 2007, 1:31 pm 1:31 pm
oh come on
How is this any more or less gimicky than campaign blogs?
She hired Daou (sp?) to recreate the Daou report, and now she’s simulated the Drudge Report. It’s all different forms of the same gimmick. Who cares?
Are they controlling the consumption of news? please. It’s tantamount to a campaign blog. People know the diff between Hillary Hub and AP. It’s ludicrous to suggest otherwise.
Posted by: cordelia525 | June 14, 2007, 1:48 pm 1:48 pm
Jake, I think you’re being uncharacteristically unreasonable in your take on HillaryHub in today’s blog, despite another wonderful political caricature. Isn’t it possible that the Clintons are simply saving for a rainy day, or maybe even saving for their retirement? They could even be saving to redecorate their place in Chappaqua, but that would simply be a guess on my part. (I’ll check HillaryHub to verify that.)
After having read the numerous preceding postings on your piece about HillaryHub, it’s obvious to even the most politically unaware observer that you’re a mere pawn for the Republicans/the Democrats by critiquing/supporting control-freak/warm-and-fuzzy Hillary for whom you filter/don’t filter the news and for whom you’re nothing but a shill/harsh critic. I think one of your more distinguished frequent contributors summarized his reactions nicely by directly stating: “Keep saying thing and hope people will follow blinded.” (?????)
Two points: 1) Does anyone really expect unbiased reporting and a “spin-free zone” from a candidate’s own website? 2) If people from all sides are complaining about your take on the news, you must be doing something right!
Posted by: chuck | June 14, 2007, 2:03 pm 2:03 pm
jeeze – a poster wrote: “If people from all sides are complaining about your take on the news, you must be doing something right!”
thats always the common and useless argument that the press uses to defend its lacking or lazy work…me thinks you are too much a “fan” of this network annointed “celebrity” tv talker to actually consider the validity of any critical response…
Posted by: tim howe | June 14, 2007, 2:19 pm 2:19 pm
But, tim, I DID provide a critical response, which I consider quite valid: see point #1. I just found it quite amusing that our hosst, Mr. Tapper, was getting told off in no uncertain terms from all sides. What was it that Lincoln said about pleasing all the people all of the time?
Posted by: chuck | June 14, 2007, 2:24 pm 2:24 pm
Chuck,
too be fair, you did, but that ol’ saw has been used over and over whenever criticism from the left has been offered about media coverage of our candidates (or when the “Clinton rules” of coverage kick in).
They always respond that the right’s unending claims of “liberal bias” must prove that they are doing a “fair and balanced job”. Right…
Posted by: tim howe | June 14, 2007, 2:39 pm 2:39 pm
ooops! I took my own advise and went to the daily howler and typed in tapper’s name and….ah…to my embarrasment…found out that….ah…the…daily howler….eh…thinks that …eh ..Jake Tapper has actually done…good work.
Ooops! My mistake! If Somerby thinks that youve done good work….well, he is the most honest of fellows, so I decided that I owed Mr. Tapper an apology for saying he did bad work in the past….even though I had problems myself with this posts references to those three sainted Pulitzer prize winners new books.
In penance, Id like to offer that I have always liked Tapper’s cartoons :)
Posted by: tim howe | June 15, 2007, 12:17 pm 12:17 pm
So you wrote this piece to say that her campaign site posts positive stuff about her and tries to spin even critical things in a positive light…. and so….????
Isn’t that what a CAMPAIGN is supposed to do?
Posted by: crayray2000 | June 15, 2007, 5:21 pm 5:21 pm
June 21, 2007
Subject: Hillary for President
I nominate Hillary for President for the following reasons:
1) She is best speaker that we have in our bureaucracy.
2) She knows how to get along with the boys in the most diplomatic way.
3) She does not talk much about the war.
4) She is a strong supporter of health issues. She knows that soft issues are in much need of improvement.
5) She will lower our bills.
6) She is a strong supporter of literature.
7) She knows what progress means.
Hillary will be a great asset in our government as future President.
Thank you for your presence in our government.
Sincerely,
Erica T.
Posted by: EricaT | June 16, 2007, 12:44 am 12:44 am
I can’t believe the short memories that the American public has. You say Hillary is for health issues. Okay, then why DIDN’T the health plan they were going to create for America ever get off the ground? Why did American taxpayers foot the bill for the investigations done in regards to Hillary and then president Bill? She’s an attorney..of course she’s going to be eloquent in her speech! What is it you think attorneys do? There are other choices out there…they don’t have personel assets of $50 mil or the “war chest” she does. Unfortunately it almost looks like the media is going to elect our next president as they don’t allow equal time for the independent party candidates. Please America…take the wool from over your eyes. We have been duped enough. We have choices! There are people out there with integrity who are not being bought by special interest groups or the rich who are afraid their lifestyles might be altered. Smart people exist in every walk of life, not just in so call high government offices. They were just smart enough to get us to elect them!!!!
Posted by: retrogirl | June 17, 2007, 6:06 pm 6:06 pm
Erica T. you take lessons from the lib machine, you gave a list of reasons without giving a reason.
On the healthcare issue, for the way majority that have healthcare now will be paying 10 time more if Hillarys health care system goes through, you will just be paying Hilaru\y for the care if they decide to give you care instead of insurance companies. Look at Europe they are going broke with their Hilarycare system.
Hilary would be the worse President she will raise your taxes to where you pay 80% of your income, she said if you do not believe me, actually all the Libs said it. They will be the only ones able to keep money.
Posted by: spock | June 17, 2007, 11:11 pm 11:11 pm
All I have to say is that Hillary seems to care more about our internal problems than other candidates, we need someone who focuses on health care and education. We need her, I know she isn’t perfect, but who is? Rudy? people should check his mayoral record, he wont be able to hide behind his “I was the leader on 9/11″ shield forever.
Posted by: Ed Becerra | June 19, 2007, 12:40 am 12:40 am
If this website is for spin purposes…it’s not doing a good job. Case in point- in the news posting from Politico entitled “Hillary Posts Strong Showing in Take Back America Straw Poll”…if you click on the link it leads to an article with the headline “Obama Wins Politico.com Straw Poll”. The article goes on to talk about Obama and Edwards as the top tier and Hillary a distant third. Not exactly the kind of news I would tout!
Posted by: Fred Halpern | June 21, 2007, 1:15 pm 1:15 pm