The New York Times has hired Glenn Thrush, the Politico reporter who came under fire after WikiLeaks published emails that appeared to show him colluding with the Clinton campaign, even sending his work to Clinton officials pre-publication.
Politico's Glenn Thrush to join the New York Times https://t.co/sg0HQmw3dJ
— andrew kaczynski (@KFILE) December 12, 2016
Some personal news, of the bittersweet variety, for those who care about these things…
After eight remarkable… https://t.co/canVfx3mdH
— Glenn Thrush (@GlennThrush) December 12, 2016
The hire was widely praised among members of the mainstream media as “smart,” but many conservative critics quickly recalled the times Thrush appeared in the WikiLeaks emails hacked from Hillary Clinton campaign manager John Podesta’s Gmail account.
How to get promoted to the NYT!! pic.twitter.com/Yb0H3XDyWc
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) December 12, 2016
How did this convo even go?
"Can we hire someone who self-describes as a hack to Democrats?"
"Duh we're the NYT!!!"— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) December 12, 2016
In an April 2015 email to Podesta, Thrush described himself as a “hack” while offering to let Podesta review a story prior to publication. “Because I have become a hack I will send u the whole section that pertains to u,” Thrush wrote. “Please don’t share or tell anyone I did this.”
Thrush sent a similar email to Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri, who passed the information along to other top Clinton aides including Robby Mook and Huma Abedin.
“Glenn Thrush is doing a story about how well launch went and some part of it will be about me – which I hate,” Palmieri wrote. “He did me the courtesy of sending what he is going to say about me. Seems fine.”
Giving sources advance approval of stories or parts of stories is verboten in high-end journalistic circles.
Many conservatives are likely to view the Times‘ hiring of Thrush to be another example of liberal media bias run amok. The WikiLeaks email dump exposed a number of Thrush’s future colleagues at the Times engaging in questionable journalistic behavior.
Times reporter Mark Leibovich, for example, was revealed to have sought quote approval from the Clinton campaign following an interview with Mook, even though the paper reportedly banned the practice in 2012.
Another email published by WikiLeaks showed Times reporter John Harwood asking Podesta for suggestions about what questions to ask then-Republican primary candidate Jeb Bush.
TAKE THE POLL
