I have no intention of buying or reading Amy Chozick’s account of her 10 years following Hillary Clinton. I have my own 10 years archived here. The excerpt in yesterday’s New York Times provides an interesting insight, for what that is worth, to how the campaign was covered in the media.
While it is perhaps laudable that Chozick takes some responsibility for the effect of reportage on the election outcome, she seems to have missed the most important fault. Emphasis below is mine. From the article:
“They were never going to let me be president.”
SNIP
She did a whole riff on making lists. “I have a plan for just about everything,” she said. “You know, maybe this is a woman thing. We make lists, right? I love making lists. And then I love crossing things off!”
SNIP
And they were The Times and me and all the other journalists who covered those stolen emails.
It was not only eternally and ever the emails or the failure to ascribe importance to the source (Wikileaks) of the leaked DNC and Podesta emails. It was the abdication of the primary duty of a campaign reporter: to inform the public of the plans.
Yes, Hillary did have a plan for just about everything. They were good plans. Unfortunately, like blueprints, plans are not especially sexy or exciting. That those plans got shunted off into dusty corners of office cubicles (Amy’s and others’) is, I would argue, the single most significant failure of reportage in the campaign.
As mea culpas go, meh. More a Greek apologia. Chozick writes, “She went through the motions.” No! She did the homework! You dropped the ball. The ball was those plans.
Hillary Clinton, flanked by Bill Clinton, left, and Tim Kaine, giving her concession speech in Manhattan the day after Election Day in 2016. Credit Ruth Fremson/The New York Times
Still4Hill 
No. They never were. And so far there are only three books about the 2016 election worth reading–Hillary’s, Jennifer Palmieri’s, and Susan Bordo’s. All others are a waste of time and money. Amazing to me that Hillary continues to be scolded about “re-litigating” that election, but everyone else does so without a peep from Hillary’s tormentors.
After a week of watching James Comey bob and weave his way thru numerous interviews, always careful not to sound too sympathetic to Hillary or too critical of the GOP as a whole, it seems to me that this dude still has ambitions in government. He figures he only needs a more “normal” Republican president to end his exile to private life. He wants either a federal judgeship, even a Supreme Court nomination, or to be appointed Attorney General. Hell, he already has experience as AG, having hijacked that job’s functions from Loretta Lynch during the Hillary email probe. Thus, he’s careful not to alienate the Never Trumpers in the Republican party.
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That’s an interesting perspective on Comey. I have to admit, I basically like him and think he had a good career. But I also think he made a big,mistake with the announcement 10 days before the election, or whenever it was.He should have just followed protocol, period. Instead, he caved rather than stand up. And he lost his job anyway.
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My problems with Comey began long b4 his momentum killing letter to Congress 11 days b4 the election. His anti-Clinton career began when he was a counsel to Al D’Amato’s Senate Whitewater committee in the mid-nineties. No matter what he says now, he’s always been a loyal Republican who has counted on the patronage of Republican presidents to advance his career. However, this fast moving ship ran into an iceberg named Trump and ran aground. He awaits a rescue mission to re-launch.
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I really believe that Trump wouldn’t be in so much trouble now if he had left Comey alone, instead of calling him in to demand that he drop the Flynn investigation and pledge loyalty to Trump. Comey knew if he began making compromising deals with Trump, it would destroy Comey’s brand of “integrity”. And it would leak. Trump couldn’t leave well enough alone.
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Obama should have appointed a Democrat to replace Comey. But he seemed hell bent on trying to appease Republicans, instead of protecting his future. A Democratic FBI director most likely would have followed Justice Dept. rules and protocol and we never would have had that stupid announcement.
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We would not have had either announcement.
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I plan on reading Amy’s book. Ten years of experience covering here should provide some interesting perspective. It’s not fair to blame the reporters for the balance of coverage the campaign received. Those decisions were made at executive editorial levels.
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I am not cutting her any slack. She was hired specifically because of her history reporting on HRC. She had plenty of heft and voice. It’s Earth Day. I searched for her report on Hillary’s clean energy plan. Crickets. She was there, but… emails.
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The press IS the reason we have Trump – and they know it but won’t admit it. Hillary had plans for everything but the emails took all the oxygen out of the room. The press was painting a picture of Clinton corruption and suspicion with the Foundation, emails, everything. It seems so small now…in comparison to the mess we currently have. I believe the more we eventually find out and people analyze more, the clearer it will become that this election was advantaged to a particular side. I think Hillary got robbed.. She has already acknowledged her responsibility, but there is much more to it than that. Such a shame for all of us.
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The chance to have Hillary as our President is one of the greatest disappointments of my loss. I am not as forgiving as I should be towards those who not only supported Trump but still do. May God forgive them because I can’t.
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That should read “disappointments of FYI life.”
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Suzie2 comments are right on. They never covered her like they did
Trump. So sad to go back and take a second look of what happened during the campaign. Each time I look, it gets worse. Our girl had so much going against her and yes part was the media coverage. I can not stand to look at Trump he is a mean horrible man. No way should he be in the oval office.
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There was the study done by the Shorenstein (?) center (Harvard) that proved that not only did Hillary get the most negative coverage , but also the LEAST amount of positive coverage of all the candidates. It really was biased against her. The press has never liked the Clintons. It’s also why Al Gore lost as well in 2000. They were awful to him calling him stiff and wooden while portraying George W. as a guy you could have a beer with. Remember that? How’d that work out for us? Gore would have never started a war in Iraq,
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Read this about the Shorenstein study by Harvard U.
https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2016/11/02/how-media-s-email-obsession-obliterated-clinton-policy-coverage/214242
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This is not complicated = Comey clearly has a problem with powerful women, period. What he did to Hillary was just another male reacting the way many men do when they see a woman who is clearly the superior to her male opponents in the male preserve – the Oval office – and with the media joining in to make certain that the woman had to deal with every possible road block they could throw in her pat, while giving a trump a free pass and for what? It’s beyond comprehension. The male ego would rather destroy the village than have a woman in charge of it.
I will NEVER forgive comey for what he did to Hillary because it was simply misogyny run amuck by a man whose EGO got in the way of doing the right thing. But hey, it happened to a woman, so, comey, like trump, gets a pass and everybody pretends it was no big deal.. Had he done it to trump and not Hillary what do you thing the reaction would have been by the media and the public? They and especially trump would have been outraged and would have supported trumps contesting the outcome of the election because of such actions. What a jerk. I hope history gives comey what he truly deserves (a footnote about what a total loser he was in one of the most important presidential elections in our history), since the public and the media certainly aren’t.
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