A top Democratic operative advised Hillary Clinton’s campaign to use minority and women journalists to “shame” The New York Times and other media outlets into giving the Democratic presidential nominee more favorable coverage, according to a hacked email released Wednesday.
Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress and a staunch Clinton backer, wrote to campaign manager John Podesta sharing “Howard’s advice,” a reference to Howard Wolfson, communications director for Clinton’s 2008 presidential bid and a former top aide to Mayor Bloomberg.
Wolfson, according to Tanden, “thinks the brown and women pundits can shame the times and others on social media. So cultivating [them] to defend her is helpful. They can be emboldened.”
Tanden named The Nation’s Joan Walsh, Vox’s Matt Yglesias, The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent and NBC’s Perry Bacon as among those who could be “helpful.”
Tanden also called Times publisher Arthur “Pinch” Sulzberger “a pretty big wuss” in the July 2015 email.
“when bloomberg was having problems w the times he called Arthur schulzburger (sic) and asked for coffee. He made the case that they were treating him like a billionaire dilettante instead of Third term mayor. It changed the coverage moderately but also aired the issues in the newsroom,” she wrote in the message, which was hacked and released by WikiLeaks.
“so people were more conscious of it. But Arthur is a pretty big wuss so he’s not going to do a lot more than that. Hillary would have to be the one to call.”
Wolfson told Politico that he did not remember the exchange with Tanden.