Candid, or Clueless? The Hill Reports on 'Hillary's Unlikely Ally: The Media'

May 18th, 2016 11:26 AM

The Hill’s top editors Bob Cusack and Ian Swanson came out with an article Tuesday titled, “Hillary's unlikely ally: The media." Unlikely? Their first sentence: "Hillary Clinton has an unlikely ally in her bid to defeat Donald Trump this fall: the media."

In the article, Cusack and Swanson addressed Clinton’s claims of the media backing her then-rival Barack Obama, in 2008, writing, “The Democratic presidential front-runner has had a long, contentious relationship with the press, most notably in her 2008 run for the White House. But 2016 figures to be much different.”

How so? Well, for one, they lay blame on “how poorly Hillary Clinton’s 2008 communications team dealt with reporters,” but this time around, Clinton has a new communications crew.

The Hill duo then turns their attention to Trump, citing the journalistic contempt for the presumed Republican presidential nominee:

Much of the political media disdain Trump, and that feeling is palpable in green rooms in New York City and Washington, D.C.

The thought of a Trump presidency simply scares political journalists for a number of reasons, including his proposal to “open up” libel laws to make it easier to sue media companies.

Many pundits had to eat their words when they predicted Trump would implode and had no shot at winning the Republican nomination. Now that the celebrity businessman is the presumptive nominee, Trump critics in the media, including some on the right, don’t want him to win in November.

Cusack and Swanson made a clear distinction on how journalists in the media vote, or at least admitted voting when they consented to a poll, which they now avoid:

It’s not unusual for Republicans to feel slighted by political reporters, most of whom vote Democratic in presidential election years. In a 1992 survey of Washington-based journalists, 89 percent said they voted for Bill Clinton, while 7 percent backed George H.W. Bush and 2 percent supported Ross Perot.

But it is rare for the Clintons to have the media on their side.

Maybe it’s just me, but wouldn’t you think the 89 percent of the journalists who voted for Clinton back in 1992…were pro-Clinton?

As it is, the media is showing their “pro-Clinton” stance by writing hit pieces on Trump and dedicating 20-plus reporters devoted to looking up every ex-girlfriend, business deal, business connection…you name it…on the self-made millionaire – such as what The Washington Post is doing.  Are they doing this with Hilary Clinton?  They say they will, but don’t hold your breath.