NYT censorship of article

New York Times Edited Bernie Sanders Article For Hillary Clinton’s Campaign

Edison Starkweather

Medium.com

27 July, 2016

Emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee reveal that Nicholas Confessore suppressed information about Hillary Clinton’s victory fund in an article he wrote about Bernie Sanders. The New York Times political correspondent made the omissions at the request of Hillary Clinton’s campaign lawyer, Marc E. Elias, and DNC officials.

The emails, published by Wikileaks, also appear to show that Confessore made other edits to the article at the request of former DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman-Shultz. After Confessore’s revisions, DNC National Press Secretary Mark Paustenbach suggested that the DNC Chairwoman grant an off-the-record interview to a group of New York Times writers.

In an email to Paustenbach, Miranda writes, “We were able to keep him from including more on the JVF, it has a mention in there, but between us and a conversation he had with Marc Elias he finally backed off from focusing too much on that.”

The initials JVF stand for: joint victory fund, the name DNC staff use to refer to the Hillary Victory Fund. On April 18, Bernie Sanders’ campaign questioned whether the DNC is using the victory fund as a way of “improperly subsidizing Clinton’s campaign bid by paying Clinton staffers.”

A May, 2, Politico article suggested that state parties involved in the joint fundraising effort may be “acting as money laundering conduits” for the Clinton campaign. After paying into the joint fund, the state parties involved may not see much return on their investment.

In Confessore’s final revision of the article, the Hillary Victory Fund is not mentioned by name. The controversy is only alluded to in one sentence: “The Democratic National Committee now relies on Mrs. Clinton’s fund-raising to provide a fifth of its monthly income, an arrangement the Sanders campaign has criticized.”

In the same email Miranda writes, “Longabaugh also strikes a somewhat conciliatory tone described here.” Miranda appears to be referencing another change the DNC requested from Confessore.

In Wassserman-Shultz’s response to Miranda she writes, “This is an updated version of the story from when it posted last night. Longabaugh’s comment about being well represented on all the committees wasn’t in that version. It should also include that each candidate will get their proportion of the remaining 167 members of the committee. The Chair’s At-Large appointments are only 25 on each committee.”

The DNC Chairwoman seems annoyed that not all of her revisions were made by Confessore. The offending sentence appears to be: “Of 45 potential members submitted by Mr. Sanders, she (Wasserman-Shultz) appointed just three, according to Mr. Sanders’s campaign.”

Within two hours of Wasserman-Shultz’s email, Paustenbach wrote to Miranda again. In an email titled “DWS Media Strategy,” Paustenbach recommends that the DNC Chairwoman do an off-the-record interview with Confessore and his colleagues at the New York Times: Senior Editor for Politics Carolyn Ryan and Presidential campaign correspondent Maggie Haberman.

This article was submitted to the Op-Ed editors of four of the United State’s leading newpapers. They did not respond. Please spread this information through social media.