Wikileaks email drop reveals Politico’s Kenneth Vogel giving DNC’s Mark Paustenbach an advanced screening of article
The Wikileaks email dropped may have outed the Democratic National Committee’s collusion to prevent Vermont Senator and democratic socialist Bernie Sanders from beating Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries, but it also revealed the Politico’s Kenneth Vogel sent the DNC advanced copies of his work.
In fact, the “agreement” appears to have given the DNC national press secretary Mark Paustenbach a viewing before Vogel’s editors, confirmed in communication to Luis Miranda, the DNC’s communications director.
Vogel’s story about Hillary Clinton’s fundraising machine went to Paustenbach in late April, ahead of his editors, according to these leaked emails published by WikiLeaks.
The email’s subject line read: “per agreement … any thoughts appreciated.”
“Vogel gave me his story ahead of time/before it goes to his editors as long as I didn’t share it,” Paustenbach wrote in an email to Luis Miranda, the DNC’s communications director.
“Let me know if you see anything that’s missing and I’ll push back,” he added.
The final copy of the story did not appear have any significant edits with the unnamed Clinton staffers pushing back, or at least appearing to do so. The sending an advanced copy of a story to a subject represents a break from typical journalistic ethics.
Business Insider mentioned an unknown source “A person with knowledge of the agreement” who claimed that the Vogel agreement was “to ensure accuracy in a complex story,” so expect that to be the narrative from the DNC and Politico, if there is ever a statement made.
This isn’t the only link between Politico and the DNC.
In one email thread with Politico’s Daniel Strauss, Miranda told Strauss that he would “point out… some of the issues” with the Sanders’ DNC committee appointments “off the record” with Strauss. Miranda offers to help him write his story. Strauss initially asked for Miranda to send the list of appointments over “with no fingerprints attached.”
In another email thread dated May 11, Miranda is seen briefing the Wall Street Journal’s Laura Meckler on Sanders’ committee appointments, complaining that Sanders continued to demand fair representation on the DNC’s platform committee despite DNC chairperson Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s concessions to the Sanders campaign.
The pressure mounted against Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who stepped down as chair of the DNC, only to quickly be added to the Hillary Clinton campaign.
photo Jennifer Moo via Flickr
