Media Bias: It took six years and a court order for the Associated Press to dislodge Hillary Clinton's schedule from the State Department. What it showed is that Clinton entertained a parade of visitors who were major donors to the Clinton Foundation. As thanks for this important investigative work, the AP is being viciously attacked by other journalists.
"This is an important and interesting thing that people should know about, Clinton's tenure in the highest office that she's ever held, secretary of state. Who did she meet with? Who are those people?" said Associated Press executive editor Kathleen Carroll.
The fact that State refused to turn these documents over for years, and did so only after being ordered by a judge, clearly suggested that Clinton had something to hide. Even now, State is withholding half of Clinton's meeting schedule until after the election.
The information the AP was able to get its hands on strongly supports other evidence showing that the Clinton Foundation was little more than a pay-to-play operation, with the Clinton's trading payments to their personal "charity" for access and favors.
In common parlance, this is called graft, and it's the sort of crass political corruption that journalists used to care about.
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But not when it involves their chosen presidential candidate.
On CNN's Reliable Sources this Sunday -- over a chyron that read "Critics Say AP Story Flawed" -- Brian Stelter started his segment by wondering "why the AP published the story at all? They conducted a long investigation. Did they just want to show that they had done the work? Did they just want to show that they had found something, even if it didn't amount to much?"
Stelter didn't cite any "critics" -- except for the Clinton campaign -- who said the AP story was "flawed." Instead, he -- along with other journalists -- fixated on a single tweet AP sent out to promote the story, which Carroll admitted should have been more precise.
Stelter's segment followed an even more egregious work of pro-Clinton propaganda published on CNN's website, titled "Associated Press botches Hillary report and response."
Dylan Byers says that the AP's findings were "deemed less extraordinary by other journalists and pundits" and that "other news organizations pilloried the AP's report."
The only evidence Byers cites to back up his highly charged "botched" claim is a Washington Post "Fact Checker" piece that wasn't about flaws in the AP story, but about how Donald Trump had initially mischaracterized the AP's findings. He also cites a piece by liberal commentator Matthew Yglesias, who shockingly concluded that "there's just nothing here."
This haranguing of AP by other reporters isn't about upholding the high standards of professional journalism -- no one has challenged the AP's reporting.
This is about intimidation, pure and simple.
Stelter, Byers and others are sending a message to every other journalist: Do anything that might harm Hillary Clinton's chances of winning the election in November, and you can kiss your journalism career goodbye.
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