NYT: ‘Worry’ That Hillary Clinton Isn’t Focusing on Liberalism Enough

August 15th, 2016 5:29 PM

Leave it to the New York Times to fret whether or not Hillary Clinton is showcasing liberalism enough. In a front page story, Monday, the paper featured a headline warning, “Some Liberals Worry Clinton Faces Risks in Focus on Trump.” Writer Matt Flegenheimer echoed complaints of the Washington Post, complaining about outreach to Republicans. 

He chided, “Liberal Democrats and progressive activists have grown wary of the state of the 2016 presidential race, chafing at Hillary Clinton’s big-tent courtship of Republican leaders they have long opposed and fearing the consequences of shaping the contest as a referendum on Donald J. Trump.” 

The story featured six high profile liberal or Democratic individuals to worry that outreach to Republicans skeptical of Trump will endanger liberalism: 

Liberal Democrats and progressive activists have grown wary of the state of the 2016 presidential race, chafing at Hillary Clinton’s big-tent courtship of Republican leaders they have long opposed and fearing the consequences of shaping the contest as a referendum on Donald J. Trump.

...

“I fully expected that we would be at war with the Clinton administration, if there is one,” said Jonathan Tasini, a former union leader who challenged Mrs. Clinton in her Senate primary in 2006. “Once she is elected, I suspect she will go back to being what she is, which is a relatively moderate, centrist, corporate Democrat.”

On August 11, the Washington Post included an article promoting this worry from progressives. In an article by Dave Weigel, the headline revealed, “Clinton’s Republican outreach a step too far for already suspicious liberals.” 

Regarding Bernie Sanders, Weigel sympathized, “With his campaign in the rearview mirror, they see Clinton courting the sorts of Republicans they have worked against for decades — and it angers them.” Unlike the Times, the Post at least didn't see this story as front-page-worthy. It was placed on A-4. 

Rather than focus on the emotional state of fragile liberals, maybe the Post and the Times should devote more resources to subjects like Hillary Clinton’s e-mails. NewsBusters’s Clay Waters on August 7 recounted the Times’s hesitance to cover the latest on Clinton’s server. The paper’s public editor even called out the Times

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