[_fizz_buzz_]

Here is the thing. The email exchange with Politico actually proves to me that the Clinton campaign has a lot less influence over the press than people assume. Politico sent an article that is very critical of Clinton to her campaign. They were trying to push back. Then Politico published the article anyway. If the Clinton campaign had any influence over Politico they would've been able to stop the article. You have to see the context. This was THE big critical story about Clinton during the primaries (besides the millions articles about emails) and I couldn't find anything essential that the Clinton campaign was able to prevent from publishing.

[rayiner]

That's an interesting spin. Ignore the fact that Politico gave a candidate a "head's up" about a damaging piece and be happy that at least they still published it despite push back. It's less terrible than you thought it was!

[_fizz_buzz_]

There is nothing illegal (or even unethical in my opinion) to give someone an article before publishing so they can comment on it. It's ridiculous to infer collusion when the result is such a negative article about Clinton. Which piece of information did not make it into the article because it was first send to Paustenbach? Please be specific.

[rayiner]

I didn't say it was illegal. I do think it is unethical. It's what we call in legal world an ex parte communication. It's an off-the-record communication with the subject of the article. At the very least, it gives the subject advance warning to spin or do damage control in response--a courtesy I suspect is not granted to everyone.

[snowwrestler]

> a courtesy I suspect is not granted to everyone.

It's worth pointing out that since we don't have a dump of the Bernie emails, we don't know what their press interaction was like. I'd be shocked if they did not participate in this article. They certainly pushed it pretty hard once it published.

[moultano]

>-a courtesy I suspect is not granted to everyone.

It is standard practice in every bit of journalism I've ever seen to ask the subject for comment.