Do you remember back to the time when the constant refrain in the mainstream media was that Hillary Clinton was a great secretary of state?  Back before the Benghazi slaughter, before the Russia reset became a bad joke?  For some reason, it was constantly bandied about that her globe-trotting in an executive version of the Boeing 757 (just like Trump’s, but presumably minus the gold faucets in the bathroom) made her an effective SecState. Thanks to J.K. Trotter of Gawker’s Freedom of Information Act requests filed in 2012, we get to peek behind the curtain and see how such fawning coverage is manufactured.  It ain’t pretty. [It’s a] case study in how her prodigious and sophisticated press operation manipulates reporters into amplifying her desired message—in this case, down to the very word that The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder used to describe an important policy speech. The emails in question, which were exchanged by...(Read Full Post)