Clinton team threatens New York Times, but don't expect them to back down

Jonathan Allen · Friday, July 31, 2015, 10:30 am
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The big political news overnight was the release of a letter Hillary Clinton's campaign sent to the New York Times complaining about a story the paper bungled last week. The Times reported that two inspectors general had asked the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation into the former secretary of State's handling of classified or sensitive material on her personal email account. There was no criminal referral, and the subject of the requested probe is the State Department's handling of the email, not Clinton's.
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Communications Director Jennifer Palmieri laid out a detailed case for how the Times treated Clinton unfairly. You can read the whole letter here.
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Probably the most important theme is that the campaign issued a thinly veiled threat to stop dealing with the Times if its grievances are not addressed.
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We feel it important to outline these concerns with you directly so that they may be properly addressed and so our campaign can continue to have a productive working relationship with the Times.
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Palmieri makes four main points in the letter:
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• "First, the seriousness of the allegations that the Times rushed to report last Thursday evening demanded far more care and due diligence than the Times exhibited prior to this article’s publication."
• "Second, in its rush to publish what it clearly viewed as a major scoop, the Times relied on questionable sourcing and went ahead without bothering to seek corroborating evidence that could have supported its allegation."
• "Even after the Times’ reporting was revealed to be false, the Times incomprehensibly delayed the issuance of a full and true correction."
• "Lastly, the Times’ official explanations for the misreporting is profoundly unsettling.

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Don't expect the Times to back down. This isn't the first time they've been accused of journalistic malpractice by Clintonworld or a presidential campaign. And we would all suffer if the best paper in the country lost a step. But it's a reminder to the Times and everyone else in media — myself included — that the need to scrutinize public figures should not be confused for the right to treat them unfairly.
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http://www.vox.com/2015/7/31/9078325/Clinton-threatens-Times-report