Will Hillary's E-mail Come Up In the Debate? Networks Mostly Silent on New AP Scoops

October 13th, 2015 3:20 PM

While the pundits wonder how the Hillary Clinton e-mail scandal will be raised by CNN moderators tonight, it’s worth noting the networks have been skipping out on two AP scoops on the e-mail scandal since Thursday.

NBC and the PBS NewsHour are missing in action. On CBS This Morning, reporter Nancy Cordes noted “The Associated Press is reporting this morning, Norah, that her private home server was hooked up to the Internet in ways that made it vulnerable to attack.” Face the Nation host John Dickerson vaguely mentioned today’s AP story in passing: 

ANTHONY MASON: John, you heard Nancy Cordes mention the e-mail issue. How big a role do you think that’s likely to play tonight and what do you think Hillary Clinton can do to finally put that to rest? 

DICKERSON: It will play a role. There is that new information today about possible security breaches. It's one of those moments where the answer she’s given, she’s given many different answers on that question. She’s been contrite then not contrite. She’s been attacking Republicans for politicizing the issue. Where will she be tonight? That will be one of those moments where it may have to do with the e-mail question but it may speak to that larger question of honest and trustworthy. In our most recent poll, 60% of general election voters didn't think she was honest and trustworthy. That's not a good number for her. 

If a CBS viewer didn't look up from their breakfast, they'd miss that CBS showed a poll number on Clinton's use of a personal e-mail server for work: 21 percent said it was "appropriate," but 71 percent picked "Not appropriate." 

On NBC’s Today, Peter Alexander briefly touched on the entire issue: “Then there’s the ongoing e-mail controversy. While partisan sniping has undercut the House Benghazi Committee, Clinton will try to argue the scandal is fueled by Republican attacks, with the last round of her personal e-mails being released just three days before the Iowa caucuses.”

ABC couldn’t be bothered to touch on the subject, not even during their interview with Hillary backer Jennifer Granholm. 

This is how the new AP story begins: 

WASHINGTON (AP) - The private email server running in Hillary Rodham Clinton's home basement when she was secretary of state was connected to the Internet in ways that made it more vulnerable to hackers, according to data and documents reviewed by The Associated Press.

Clinton's server, which handled her personal and State Department correspondence, appeared to allow users to connect openly over the Internet to control it remotely, according to detailed records compiled in 2012. Experts said the Microsoft remote desktop service wasn't intended for such use without additional protective measures, and was the subject of U.S. government and industry warnings at the time over attacks from even low-skilled intruders....

"That's total amateur hour," said Marc Maiffret, who has founded two cyber security companies. He said permitting remote-access connections directly over the Internet would be the result of someone choosing convenience over security or failing to understand the risks. "Real enterprise-class security, with teams dedicated to these things, would not do this," he said.

Last Thursday, ABC’s and CBS’s morning programs briefly touched on that day’s AP story: 

DAN HARRIS, ABC:  New details in the Hillary Clinton email investigation. The AP, the Associated Press, reporting this morning that Clinton's private email server was the target of attempted cyberattacks from China, South Korea and Germany. The attacks came after her time as secretary of state and were apparently blocked by security software. But the report says there was a three-month period after Clinton left the administration when that protection wasn't installed, meaning the server was potentially vulnerable.  (75 words)

....

CHARLIE ROSE, CBS: A report this morning says hackers tried to get inside Hillary Clinton`s private e-mail server. The cyberattacks came from China, South Korea and Germany. They began after Clinton resigned as secretary of state. A congressional document obtained by the Associated Press does not say if the attacks were political or just spam. A contractor hired to protect Clinton`s private information warned that her server was vulnerable. (68 words)

On Sunday, This Week ran a brief clip of a GOP ad: 

HILLARY CLINTON: I did not email any classified material to anyone.

CHARLIE ROSE: A federal government watchdog has determined there was classified information.

CBS NEWS REPORTER (FEMALE): Did, in fact, contain classified information.

NPR’s Mara Liasson briefly mentioned emails in a debate preview on Sunday night’s All Things Considered newscast: “Her task, according to Democrats that I talked to, is not to obliterate Bernie Sanders. It's to showcase herself and take advantage of a national audience when the subject is not 100 percent about emails.

Oh, and NPR had a lame joke on their current-events quiz show Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me: 

AMY DICKINSON: Hillary Clinton will finally reveal the truth behind her emails. Turns out she was the Nigerian prince. 

This is the beginning of the Thursday AP article: 

WASHINGTON (AP) - Hillary Rodham Clinton's private email server, which stored some 55,000 pages of emails from her time as secretary of state, was the subject of attempted cyberattacks originating in China, South Korea and Germany after she left office in early 2013, according to a congressional document obtained by The Associated Press.

While the attempts were apparently blocked by a "threat monitoring" product that Clinton's employees connected to her network in October 2013, there was a period of more than three months from June to October 2013 when that protection had not been installed, according to a letter from Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., chairman of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. That means her server was possibly vulnerable to cyberattacks during that time.