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COMMENT: Peter Schweizer, author of “Clinton Cash” gave one of the featured speeches last summer at a Koch Brothers event. He is, basically, a Koch Brothers political hitman.
Fox News, the New York Times, and the Washington Post have all signed a contract for exclusive agreements with the author of an upcoming book about Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation. It wasn’t surprising that Fox signed up for the deal since the author, the very same Peter Schweizer, runs a right-wing knock off of the Government Accountability Office (called the “Government Accountabiltiy Institute”) and previously served as an adviser to Sarah Palin. For the New York Times and Washington Post, the decision raised a few eyebrows.
This grotesque development highlights the growing and malignant role of Big Money and the concentration of economic power in American politics and signals the diminishing morsels of objectivity by our mainstream media.
“Look Who Was Featured Speaker at the Koch Summit” by Digby [Hullabaloo]; 5/01/2015.
Peter Schweizer author of “Clinton Cash”, who they humorously call a “researcher.” And there’s audio of it:
[A]ccording to audio obtained by The Undercurrent and Lady Libertine from a source who was present, Schweizer spoke at a political strategy summit for the Koch brothers last summer, urging donors to relentlessly pursue the left and rallying them ahead of a big fundraising pitch. His own organization, the Government Accountability Institute receives funding from Koch-funded groups.
Schweizer told the crowd:
That debate is going to come down to the question of independence versus dependence… The left and the academic sphere is not going to let up. The question is, are we going to let up? And I would contend to you that we cannot let up.
Asked if “Clinton Cash” was motivated by this strategy of relentless pursuit, Kurt Bardella, whose firm, Endeavor Strategies, represents Schweizer, said:
As he has in several speeches as a lifelong conservative, Schweizer was espousing his view that conservatives should be informed, engaged, and active.
Kevin Gentry, the emcee and a vice president of the Charles Koch Foundation, later named “competitive intelligence,” the business terminology equivalent of opposition research, as one of the enumerated Koch political investment areas.
...
You can find a transcript at the link
He’s a Koch hitman:
Schweizer’s speech, entitled “The Stakes: Who Will Define the American Dream,” teed up the Kochs’ appeal to raise $290 million in donations for their fundraising hub, Freedom Partners, its affiliated network of non-profits, and a newly created super-PAC called Freedom Partners Action Fund. Bardella declined to answer whether Schweizer was speaking in a fundraising capacity for GAI, or whether Schweizer or GAI received any funds from Koch-affiliated organizations.
Stephen Bannon, the director of conservative propaganda films like the Sarah Palin biopic “The Undefeated” and a frequent collaborator with Citizens United Productions, chairs GAI’s board. Another GAI board member is Ron Robinson, who also sits on the boards of Citizens United and Citizens United Foundation.
Citizens United Productions was the plaintiff in the Supreme Court case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission – the decision that rolled back significant campaign finance law pertaining to independent expenditures. At the center of that landmark case was a political documentary-cum-attack ad on Hillary Clinton called “Hillary: The Movie,” released ahead of the 2008 primary. Now nearly eight years later ahead of the 2016 primary, Schweitzer has published what could be considered the follow-up, Hillary: The Book.
And Citizens United goes all the way back to Whitewater..
“New York Times, Washington Post, Fox News Strike Deals for Anti-Clinton Research” by Dylan Byers; Politico; 4/20/15.
The New York Times, The Washington Post and Fox News have made exclusive agreements with a conservative author for early access to his opposition research on Hillary Clinton, a move that has confounded members of the Clinton campaign and some reporters, the On Media blog has confirmed.
“Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich” will debut on May 5. But the Times, the Post and Fox have already made arrangements with author Peter Schweizer to pursue some of the material included in his book, which seeks to draw connections between Clinton Foundation donations and speaking fees and Hillary Clinton’s actions as secretary of state. Schweizer is the president of the Government Accountability Institute, a conservative research group, and previously served as an adviser to Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.
Fox News’ use of Schweizer’s book has surprised no one. The bulk of the network’s programming is conservative, and the book’s publisher, HarperCollins, is owned by News Corporation. But the Times and Post’s decision to partner with a partisan researcher has raised a few eyebrows. Some Times reporters view the agreement as unusual, sources there said. Still others defended the agreement, noting that it was no different from using a campaign’s opposition research to inform one’s reporting — so long as that research is fact-checked and vetted. A spokesperson for the Times did not provide comment by press time.
In an articleabout the book on Monday, the Times said “Clinton Cash” was “potentially more unsettling” than other conservative books about Clinton “both because of its focused reporting and because major news organizations including The Times, The Washington Post and Fox News have exclusive agreements with the author to pursue the story lines found in the book.”
Both the Times and the Post initially did not respond to requests for comment on Monday. However, at 2 p.m., hours after the initial publication of this item, spokespeople from both newspapers sent statements in which editors defended the decisions to work with Schweizer.
“We had access to some material in the book, but we wanted to do our own reporting,” Times Washington bureau chief and political director Carolyn Ryan said.
“We made an arrangement with Peter Schweizer’s publisher so we could read his book before publication because we are always willing to look at new information that could inform our coverage,” said Post National Editor Cameron Barr. “Mr. Schweizer’s background and his point of view are relevant factors, but not disqualifying ones. What interests us more are his facts and whether they can be the basis for further reporting by our own staff that would be compelling to our readers. There is no financial aspect to this arrangement.”
On Monday, a source with knowledge of the arrangements told the On Media blog that CBS’ “60 Minutes” and ABC News turned down offers for similar exclusive access to portions of the book’s contents. A “60 Minutes” spokesperson said only, “We do not discuss the stories we are working on.” An ABC News spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
HarperCollins is marketing “Clinton Cash” as a “meticulously researched” book that “raises serious questions of judgment, of possible indebtedness to an array of foreign interests, and ultimately, of fitness for high public office.” In it, Schweizer seeks to show how donations to the Clinton Foundation and speaking fees paid to former president Bill Clinton may have influenced Hillary Clinton’s decisions at the State Department.
Clinton’s defenders are already slamming the book. Media Matters For America, the liberal watchdog group founded by Clinton ally David Brock, published a reporton Monday detailing “ten incidents of significant errors, retractions, or questionable sourcing by Schweizer.”
“Schweizer is a partisan right-wing activist whose writings have been marked with falsehoods and retractions, with numerous reporters excoriating him for facts that ‘do not check out,’ sources that ‘do not exist,’ and a basic failure to practice ‘Journalism 101,’” Brock said in a statement. “Buyers should beware and consider the source.”
...
We should probably expect a lot more stories like this: The New York Times just had to issue a second correction to their bombshell story last Thursday about the request by two US inspectors general for the DOJ to open a criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server over concerns that it could have contained classified information. It was only later that we received the corrections that it wasn’t a criminal investigation at all but just a “security referral”, something very different from a criminal referral.
And while the paper has walked back the story, executive editor Dean Baquet asserts that the reporters should not be blamed “because our very good sources [in the government] had it wrong.”
So, under the best case scenario, one of the NY Times’s “very good sources” in the government is feeding them sensationalistic misinformation that’s so “hot” that newspapers that receive the tips just can’t stop themselves from immediately going to the presses. And that’s a best case scenario:
“You had the government confirming that it was a criminal referral...I’m not sure what they could have done differently on that.”
Yeah, we should definitely, expect a lot more stories like this.