Rival left-wing website Buzzfeed has revealed the secret role that Sidney Blumenthal played in the early stages of Tina Brown’s website, The Daily Beast.  A longtime political ally of Hillary Clinton, and sometime employee of the tax-exempt Clinton Foundation, Blumenthal commissioned stories attacking Caroline Kennedy, now U.S. ambassador to Japan but at the time a potential rival of Hillary Clinton for a New York Senate seat. Rosie Gray writes: Hillary Clinton’s confidant Sidney Blumenthal played a quiet role in shaping, and sometimes steering political coverage, in the early days of The Daily Beast. Blumenthal’s role, early employees said, was touched with a bit of the conspiratorial haze that has emerged as a point of controversy in Clinton’s campaign. He wasn’t listed on the site’s masthead, and the site’s founder, Tina Brown, said she had “no idea” whether or not he was on Clinton’s payroll while helping...(Read Full Post)