Page Six, Rupert, and the Clintons
New York Observer - May 22, 2007
http://www.observer.com/2007/did-page-six-kill-numerous-items-clintons
Did Page Six Kill ‘Numerous’ Items on the Clintons?
by Michael Calderone, David Foxley and Felix Gillette
Photo: Patrick McMullan Hillary Clinton and Rupert Murdoch.
In the summer of 2005, Richard Johnson, the editor of the New York =
Post’s feared Page Six column, was having trouble getting a new =
passport to fly out to a party being hosted by Sean (P. Diddy) Combs =
in Saint-Tropez.
So he did what any citizen would do: He made a direct appeal to the =
office of junior New York Senator Hillary Clinton.
“Richard Johnson found the bureaucracy delaying his passport, and he =
appealed to Clinton’s staff for help, as any constituent would,” said =
Howard Rubenstein, who is a spokesman for the Post. “And he secured, =
in a legal and proper way, a passport that he was entitled to.
“There were no favors,” Mr. Rubenstein added.
(”While we’re very proud of our constituent services, we don’t =
comment on individual cases,” said Philippe Reines, a spokesman for =
Senator Clinton.)
The question of favors has been a big one lately at Page Six. Last =
week, the column pre-empted one of its former employees, Jared Paul =
Stern, in his efforts to make public a series of accusations about =
ethical lapses among the column’s staff, by printing an item =
themselves outlining all of the accusations.
They got hold of those accusations=97which include the charge that Page =
Six stories deemed unflattering to Bill and Hillary Clinton were =
regularly killed at the newspaper=97when Mr. Stern’s lawyer sent an =
unsworn affidavit provided by another former Post staffer, Ian =
Spiegelman, to their publisher.
Mr. Stern had been threatening to sue the New York Post for wrongful =
dismissal; last year, the freelance reporter was accused of =
attempting to extort money from billionaire Ron Burkle in exchange =
for “protection” in the column. The accusation sparked a criminal =
investigation, but no charges were filed against Mr. Stern. The =
affidavit was meant to put some muscle behind the lawsuit threat, and =
presumably provoke a settlement.
The part of the affidavit that concerns the former President and =
First Lady=97and which Page Six printed in May 18 editions of the Post=97 =
is vague.
“Politicians such as Hillary Clinton and others in a position to =
grant Murdoch and News Corp. valuable concessions and favors were … =
fellated in print,” the affidavit reads in part. And, later: “Page =
Six was ordered to kill unflattering stories about Hillary and Bill =
Clinton on numerous occasions.”
Mr. Spiegelman confessed that he was unable to recall any particular =
story about Bill or Hillary Clinton that had been killed.
“I’m not a one-man database on what stories got killed when,” he told =
The Observer.
But speaking to The Observer on May 22 , Jared Paul Stern was less =
vague.
In the summer of 2005, he said, he was preparing to bust the =
publication date on Edward Klein’s then-forthcoming Hillary Clinton =
tell-all book, The Truth About Hillary.
“We had heard that there was some pretty juicy stuff in there; we had =
heard that he had gone into the lesbian kind of thing and that =
stuff,” Mr. Stern recalled.
But, he said, after Mr. Johnson emerged from a daily 11 a.m. =
editorial meeting, he told Mr. Stern that he had been ordered to kill =
the story.
“So, basically, what we ended up doing is reconfiguring the story and =
working with Hillary Clinton’s people on this, and the story we ended =
up printing was that Ed Klein had done a sloppy hatchet job,” Mr. =
Stern said.
“This book was attacked by critics as reckless and having =
unsubstantiated claims,” said Mr. Rubenstein. “Richard Johnson did =
not want to carry something that was unsubstantiated and could very =
well be considered libelous. He constantly edits and rewrites =
people’s copy. He did what was appropriate. Johnson wanted to do =
something that was appropriate.”
If that’s true, said Mr. Stern, it would be a reversal of a common =
practice at the column.
“That happened frequently on all kinds of topics,” Mr. Stern claimed. =
“You know, tell-all books are a big Page Six staple, and we try to =
get them in advance, and we try to run down all the juicy stuff.
And the item did attract a lot of attention, because it appeared in =
the paper just as Manhattan media circles had started to detect a =
d=E9tente in the relations between the New York Post and Mrs. Clinton’s =
then-hot 2006 Senate campaign.
“The Page Six trashing of Ed Klein’s wretched little piece of sewage =
was a very interesting article,” Sidney Blumenthal, a former Clinton =
aide and author, told The Observer shortly after that item was =
published. “We won’t know for a while whether or not it was assigned, =
but it appears that [Page Six] sought the story.”
It was remarkable to liberal media watchdogs precisely because it =
seemed to be such a sea change.
The liberal journalist Michael Tomasky had, during Mrs. Clinton’s =
2000 Senate campaign, tallied 212 “negative” stories about Mrs. =
Clinton in the Post, against a mere seven “positive” stories and 17 =
that he judged “neutral.”
But during the first few years of Mrs. Clinton’s Senate career, that =
seemed to change.
“I don’t exactly know what happened with the Clintons,” said Mr. =
Spiegelman. “It was way before Rupert ever had a fund-raiser with the =
Clintons. One day, the Clintons are our friends now.”
“[Bill] Clinton definitely was out and about, and it didn’t get =
reported in Page Six,” said former Page Six reporter Fernando Gil of =
the column’s treatment of the Clintons in the years following Mrs. =
Clinton’s successful Senate campaign. “You can probably draw your own =
conclusions.”
It was shortly before Mr. Gil arrived at Page Six, in early 2003, =
that Rupert Murdoch gave Bill Clinton a tour of the New York Post’s =
newsroom.
Along the way, Mr. Clinton stopped by the Page Sixer’s pod and hammed =
it up with the staffers, a group that included Richard Johnson, Chris =
Wilson, Jared Paul Stern and Paula Froehlich, according to two =
sources who witnessed the visit.
Nearby, a photograph of Monica Lewinsky from a framed cover of the =
New York Post hung on the wall. Mr. Clinton ignored it. As he was =
leaving, Richard Johnson tried to hand the President a lad magazine =
with a scantily clad starlet on the cover as a parting gift. The =
President declined. Instead, he left with a copy of The Week.
These and other stories about the unlikely friendship between the =
Clintons and the Post=97like the one about Mr. Johnson’s passport=97 =
started to interest Mr. Stern’s lawyer, Larry Klayman. And this =
newest entry in the literature began when Mr. Spiegelman was =
contacted by Mr. Stern’s lawyer, Larry Klayman, on May 8.
“He asked if I noticed anything with the Clintons,” said Mr. Spiegelman.
Mr. Klayman’s focus on the Clintons isn’t surprising given his work =
with Judicial Watch, the conservative watchdog group that became =
famous when it filed 18 lawsuits against the Clinton administration =
during the 1990’s.
After Mr. Spiegelman’s hour-long phone interview with Mr. Klayman, he =
was sent a copy of the affidavit, written by the lawyer. Two days =
later, Mr. Spiegelman spoke to Mr. Stern about it and faxed in his =
corrections.
“I was fine with the thing with the Clintons being vague,” said Mr. =
Spiegelman. “If there is a lawsuit, it better have more than just me. =
I wouldn’t even show up.”