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PrintSeptember 25, 2007
Hillary Campaign Kills Negative Story in GQ
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Hillary Clinton's campaign has killed a story in Gentleman's Quarterly that detailed infighting in her campaign organization. How did she do it?
She threatened to deny the magazine access to her husband:
Early this summer, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign for president learned that the men’s magazine GQ was working on a story the campaign was sure to hate: an account of infighting in Hillaryland.Hillary used what Ben Smith of Politico calls "the most important commodity in media — celebrity" in order to maximize her clout. The magazine was set to do a December cover story on Bill Clinton which gave the campaign a pretty large club to hold over GQ's heads.
So Clinton’s aides pulled a page from the book of Hollywood publicists and offered GQ a stark choice: Kill the piece, or lose access to planned celebrity coverboy Bill Clinton. Despite internal protests, GQ editor Jim Nelson met the Clinton campaign’s demands, which had been delivered by Bill Clinton’s spokesman, Jay Carson, several sources familiar with the conversations said.
But what happens if Hillary were to be elected president? Suppose she were to use her or Bill's status as a celebrity to kill a scandal? Or just bad press?
Food for thought as Hillary continues a fairly easy march so far to the Demcratic nomination for president.
Hat Tip: Ed Lasky
