MEDIA MANIPULATION: DNC leaks reveal NY Times, MSNBC helped sabotage Sanders

Even before the DNC Wikileaks scandal, we saw the NY Times stealth-edit against Bernie Sanders. But in leaked emails, the DNC claimed they were able to get NY Times reporter Nick Confessore to NOT report on the controversial Hillary Victory Fund, a joint effort of the DNC and the Hillary campaign.

The DNC prepared talking points and legal defenses to respond to claims that the HVF was bundling campaign donations to skirt legal limits (a “money laundering conduit” according to Politico). Walmart’s Alice Walton and Hillary’s other billionaire donors could now give 33 times the max donation, all in one convenient envelope.

As George Clooney observed, the donation amounts were “obscene”, but to make them legal, they were routed through the HVF. As we learn, the DNC did not want this to get out during the primaries.

CONTROLLING THE NARRATIVE: The DNC would say this type of fund is nothing new, but this time they started it a year earlier, which garnered major superdelegate support before we even knew who was running. The Bernie campaign also was offered the chance to take advantage of a 33-state fund of his own, to make state-based donations more “fungible” with his national campaign’s war chest.

Bernie declined. He wasn’t yet concentrating on down-ballot fundraising, but it turns out Hillary wasn’t so much either, taking 99% of HVF money to build up her own campaign’s “infrastructure”. When Politico reported this, the DNC circled the wagons. As previously discovered, DNC staff recommended radio silence about Hillary’s ties to Wall Street contributors to keep the public “ignorant”.

DOWN TO THE WIRE: This rare look into the roles played in burying the Hillary Victory Fund story further confirms The Times had their thumb on the scale during the 2016 primary. Bernie’s message centered around campaign finance reform, so he needed the public to know how billionaires were bundling bucks for Hillary while he refused to play the same shell game.

That April, the Sanders campaign had outraised Hillary for months with small donations. Sanders alerted the press on the eve of the NY primary that Hillary was exceeding legal limits, diverting donations intended for local races to instead pay for her ads and campaign expenses. The next day, NPR, Vice, The Atlantic and others reported Bernie’s beef, but it was all too late.

According to Luis Miranda, a high ranking DNC official (who resigned this week), Confessore altered his NY Times story to downplay the “JVF” or joint victory fund. From the email:

“The Confessore story on Bernie’s impact on the Party beyond his electoral prospects is out. Overall I think it’s as good as we could hope for. We were able to keep him from including more on the JVF, it has a mention in there, but between us and a conversation he had with Marc Elias he finally backed off from focusing too much on that.”

MONEY MAN REVEALED: Miranda said Marc Elias intervened to get the NY Times to “back off” reporting on details of the $90+ million Victory Fund on behalf of his client, Hillary Clinton.

So who is Marc Elias? He is the same election finance expert who wrote the legislation gutting America’s campaign donation limits. He was dubbed “the man behind the political cash grab” by Politico, credited with single-handedly jacking up maximum contributions for the rich from $97,400 to $777,600 in a last-minute amendment inserted into the 2014 “Cromnibus” bill. This changed US elections by slipping in new “allowable expenses” in the closing hours of a trillion dollar must-pass budget bill.

HYPOCRISY ALL AROUND: The gut-wrenching last minute deal was struck by John Boehner, Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid who purportedly opposed large campaign donations. President Obama was urged by good government groups to veto the final version of the bill because of the gigantic new loopholes, but said he had no wiggle room as Democrats were about to lose control of the Senate.

INTIMIDATION TACTICS: Nick Confessore himself had reported on Mr. Elias in 2014 and 2015, saying Elias sought to “exploit the loopholes and legal gray areas”, giving the wealthy major advantages in elections. So how did the DNC get a corruption watchdog like Confessore to “back off” this time?

Aside from Elias, there was also an off-the-record meeting planned between Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, Mr. Confessore, and his superior, NYT Senior Political Editor Carolyn Ross.

STICKS AND CARROTS: Confessore also added a quote to his article from Mark Longabough, a Sanders-friendly strategist and DNC go-between who had genuinely good news for party unity. An email by Luis Miranda said:

“Longabaugh also strikes a somewhat conciliatory tone described here as saying : he believed the campaign would ultimately be well represented on all the committees as more members are named.”

So the Bernie contingent was going to get serious proportional representation in the standing committees. This resulted in “the most progressive DNC platform in history”. Seen from a different angle, this incident suggests Confessore engaged in something of a give-and-take, agreeing to whitewash the joint fundraising fund, yet still keeping in a vague allusion to something being wrong with Hillary’s fundraising:

“The Democratic National Committee now relies on Mrs. Clinton’s fund-raising to provide a fifth of its monthly income, an arrangement the Sanders campaign has criticized.”

This was a far cry from informing the public (or the DNC donors now suing) how the joint fundraising setup was actually unleashing the rich in the primary. Even more oddly, Confessore soon started reporting on other DNC leak stories without disclosing or explaining his mention.

The HVF story did see daylight elsewhere — CNN, Fox, Politico, The Atlantic and others covered it the following week with the DNC carefully tracking what was getting out to the public and discussing how to respond. When Politico sent over a list of questions about the fund, DNC staff consulted lawyers. Those lawyers responded:

“Will take a look and get back to you with some thoughts tomorrow. Are we coordinating with HFA [the Hillary campaign] on these as well? I think it would be helpful to know what they are going to say. Also, let’s reach out to Amalgamated [the bank handling the joint fund] and make sure they don’t say something dumb.”

ANOTHER SMOKING GUN: When CNN reported “The Democratic National Committee has so far declined to get in between the two campaigns”, Mr. Elias, clearly and specifically told the DNC to take sides and vilify Sanders:

“My suggestion is that the DNC put out a statement saying that the accusations the Sanders campaign are not true. The fact that CNN notes that you aren’t getting between the two campaigns is the problem.”

Mr. Elias continues: 
“…the DNC should push back DIRECTLY at Sanders and say that what he is saying is false and harmful the [sic] the Democratic party.”

This advice is now cited by donors suing the DNC for bias, and could prevent Elias’ law firm, Perkins Coie LLC, from representing the DNC if they are ruled material witnesses.

MORE STEALTH EDITING?: Also of note was the suggestion of stealth-editing in play. Wasserman-Shultz noted in her email:

“This is an updated version of the story from when it posted last night.”

Evidently, the Times posted a different version of this article before Confessore updated it. It would seem no one screen-grabbed the original piece. Confessore did not reply to a request for comment via Twitter.

The Times was previously caught stealth-editing during crucial Super Tuesday primaries, with their respected ombudswoman Margaret Sullivan admitting anti-Sanders bias by Times editors shortly before leaving her post.

MEANINGFUL COMPROMISE? Wasserman-Schultz replied to Miranda’s email describing how Confessore changed the article to reflect how the DNC was apportioning committee seats to Sanders:

“Longabaugh’s comment about being well represented on all the committees wasn’t in that version. It should also include that each candidate will get their proportion of the remaining 167 members of the committee. The Chair’s At-Large appointments are only 25 on each committee.”

So the DNC was going to at last share power after Sanders threatened to mobilize delegates at the convention if the standing committees were to be stacked with Hillary surrogates.

As we learned earlier this week, the Hillary campaign was revising their rhetoric throughout the convention to avoid embarrassing walk-outs and protests by the Bernie contingent. Sanders delegate Nomiki Konst told the Washington Post deals were being made up to the last second to convince protesters not to spoil Hillary’s big TV moment. Many were surprised to hear Hillary promise to “get money out of politics” because the same day she said this, she took in $45 million from a small circle of hedge fund managers.

MSNBC IN BAG: Another leak suggested MSNBC acquiesced to the DNC as well, stating that Rachel Maddow producer Steve Benen used language supplied by the DNC and the Hillary campaign in an article meant to paint Bernie Sanders supporters as destructive to the party. The NY Times also ran with a similar narrative after the DNC pushed fake accounts of “violence” at the Nevada convention including uncorroborated reports of thrown chairs.

FLIPPED THE SCRIPT: Back in January, Maddow was defending Bernie Sanders, refuting Hillary’s claim he was the first to “go negative” by bringing up her Wall Street contributions. Maddow did this right to Hillary’s face, in fact.

But following an off-the-record meeting between DNC brass and MSNBC president Phil Griffin, Maddow by mid-May was on the air urging Sanders to drop out of the race, and even played stock footage of hundreds of flying chairs to bolster accounts that Bernie supporters got violent and threw chairs during the Nevada Democratic Convention. Those accounts within hours were proven false but Maddow hasn’t ever corrected the record.

Rachel continued withering attacks on Sanders for weeks, even reading anonymously sourced hit pieces about him on the air as she beat the drum for his concession. Many a former fan is today lamenting Maddow’s newfound on-air electioneering and broadcast bias.

LA-LA LAND: In light of these damning leaks, the DNC has sacked four officials to date, but the media hasn’t yet confirmed or denied slanting coverage, carrying on as if we don’t have the Internet.

Originally posted at OpedNews.com