It stands to reason that Howard Kurtz, the reporter who popularised the phrase ‘the Clinton propaganda machine’ by including it in the subtitle of his 1998 book, Spin Cycle, would still be tracking the couple’s devious ways with the press.In his new book, Reality Show: Inside the Last Great Television News War, Kurtz captures Hillary Clinton — or at least her campaign — at her wily best as she negotiates the terms of engagement with the network news anchors after announcing her candidacy. Kurtz writes on Page 367: “On the weekend in early 2007 when Clinton declared her candidacy, her team let the network anchors know that she was willing to pay each of them a house call on Monday. But there was a catch: the interviews would have to be done live to tape, with no possibility of slicing and dicing.When Charlie Gibson heard about the ground rules, he balked. The problem was that in a 3½ minute interview like this, the first question had to be some version of why do you want to be president, and if Clinton went on and on, he would barely have a chance to ask about anything else. And what if Rudy Giuliani or Bill Richardson or any other candidate asked for the same treatment? It would set a terrible precedent. On Monday, Gibson told (ABC News President) David Westin that he was turning down the interview. “I’m going to back you up,” Westin said. “But please understand, you’re putting Good Morning America at a competitive disadvantage.” The morning show was facing a boycott by the Clinton family because ABC’s entertainment division had recently aired a movie, The Path to 9/11, that contained fictional scenes of top Bill Clinton aides undermining efforts against Osama bin Laden. Gibson told Westin that he would think about it. Finally, Gibson said that he would interview Hillary if they could do it live, so that neither side would have a built-in advantage. The Clinton team agreed.That afternoon, Hillary Clinton went to 30 Rock and sat down with Brian Williams. His first question was whether she had moved up her announcement to follow Obama’s within days. Not at all, Clinton said, they had planned it this way all along. He had trouble believing her answer. And when a Clinton aide later told him that of course they had speeded up their timetable, Williams concluded that she had not told him the truth.For reporters, the key to derailing the Clinton propaganda machine is to thrust a stick into its spokes the first chance you get. Hillary — much more so than Bill — is an automaton on the campaign trail, and disrupting her stay-on-message rhythms will cause her machine to topple and crash.
