Washington Post: Newsflash!!! Lukewarm Gossip About Hillary!!!

Apparently the policy of the Washington Post is their newspaper prints only the most relevant news on its front page ... except when they are trying to promote books by their writers, then any bit of gossip is good enough for their A1-above-the-fold.

Their lead story this morning, “Books Paint Critical Portraits of Clinton” has no reason to justify its placement on the front page, let alone in the lead-story location. Here’s my theory, the story is actually a “favor” to Carl Bernstein but because it would look pretty bad to have publicity piece just for a friend-of-the-paper, they puffed it out by including another book by Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta Jr., that has even shadier research.

The article in the ninth paragraph really tries to justify its classification as “news.”

Unlike many harsh books about Clinton written by ideological enemies, the two new volumes come from long-established writers backed by major publishing houses and could be harder to dismiss. Bernstein won national fame with partner Bob Woodward at The Post for breaking open the Watergate scandal, while Gerth and Van Natta have spent years as investigative reporters for the New York Times.

Yes unlike all those other imperfect books about Hillary the Bernstein...I mean BOTH THESE BOOKS, are serious investigative books written by people without agendas. (I mean other than the agenda to sell as many books as possible).

I haven’t read either but apparently Gerth’s and Natta’s book Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton has a former girlfriend of Bill Clinton, Marla Crider, (who’s not quoted directly) make the claim that it was always the plan of Bill and Hillary to have his-and-her presidencies. So it’s already second-hand “I heard that someone else said that Hillary and Bill have a plan...”

Even the Post points out a source for the story denies it.

They cite two people, Ann Crittenden and John Henry, who said Taylor Branch, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and close Clinton friend, told them that the Clintons "still planned two terms in the White House for Bill and, later, two for Hillary." Contacted last night, Branch said that "the story is preposterous" and that "I never heard either Clinton talk about a 'plan' for them both to become president."

The people who hate the Clintons will eat that shit up. But I’ll be damned if Hillary knew she’d even ever become a U.S. Senator before 1998.

I can’t believe the Post decided to run a front page story about either book, let alone Gerth and Natta’s. I mean, I can believe it because who said The Washington Post isn’t a run like a high school rag or a MySpace blog. “Did you hear the one about Hillary, I heard she’s a total bitch!” That's pretty much what the article implies.

UPDATE: I've beening wondering who the heck Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta Jr. are since I figure there's some kind of bad track record behind them but I too busy to go look for it. Whiskey Fire has more on Gerth.