ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton knows the press are her lapdogs, rooting for her presidency. Here are five examples where her team telegraphed to the mainstream media what their next-day narratives should be (and in some instances, how Donald Trump helped perpetuate it).

(1) Mr. Trump and the Russia connection

On July 25, Robby Mook, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign manager, told CNN’s Jake Tapper that it was Russian hackers who were leaking Democratic National Committee emails in order to help Mr. Trump — without any evidence. He then pushed the innuendo that Mr. Trump’s Russian connections were deep and should be investigated, that the email leaks came on the heels of “changes to the Republican platform to make it more pro-Russian.”

The next day, The Washington Post ran a front-page article on the allegation, and Mr. Mook doubled-down in a press conference, calling on reporters to investigate Mr. Trump’s Russian ties: “Reporters need to take a look at this. It’s troubling if it’s true.”

A flurry of press articles followed, questioning Mr. Trump’s relationship with Russia. During one of his rallies, Mr. Trump made a glib reference asking Russia to help find Mrs. Clinton’s 33,000 deleted emails, which the press took as proof of Mr. Trump’s involvement. Every major news outlet covered.

“Donald Trump invites Russia to find missing Hillary Clinton emails,” the Wall Street Journal wrote. “Clinton camp condemns GOP nominee for asking a foreign power to spy on a political rival.”

(2) The Khan controversy

Mrs. Clinton gave gold-star parents Khizr Khan and his wife a platform at the Democratic National Convention, inviting him to speak in a prime-time slot. The media went wild hearing his story, where he strongly criticized Mr. Trump. At one point during the speech, Mr. Khan waved a copy of the U.S. Constitution.

“If it was up to Donald Trump, [Humayun, his son] never would have been in America. Donald Trump consistently smears the character of Muslims. … He vows to build walls and ban us from this country,” he said. He also said to Mr. Trump, “You have sacrificed nothing and no one.”

Mr. Khan was immediately invited on all the cable networks and on the political Sunday shows. His speech was lauded by the media. The next day CBS “This Morning” co-anchor Norah O’Donnell said: “One of the most powerful convention moments last light” was from Mr. Khan. Co-host Gayle King, agreed, adding: “People were moved to tears by the two of them standing there.”

This was not the treatment given to gold-star mom Patricia Smith, who lost her son in Benghazi. After her speech at the Republican National Convention, she was derided. MSNBC’s Chris Matthews said Ms. Smith “ruined” the evening, Rachel Maddow said her speech was “a spectacle so offensive, it was hard to even comprehend.”

Nation magazine said the speech was “a cynical exploitation of grief.” The New Yorker magazine said her speech was “a weaponization of grief.”

Mr. Trump, sensing the double-standard and feeling personally attacked, lashed out at Mr. Khan. It was the wrong move that lead to even more critical coverage that continued for weeks.

(3) Clinton’s “basket of deplorables”

“To just be grossly generalistic, you can put half of Trump supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables,” Mrs. Clinton said at a New York City fundraiser earlier this month. “Right? Racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic, you name it.”

It wasn’t exactly a gaffe; Mrs. Clinton made similar comments in an interview earlier that week and gave an entire speech on the alt-right movement and its connection to Mr. Trump.

Although some political pundits thought it was a damning comment, the press was there to help turn lemons into lemonade for Mrs. Clinton.

“How many of Trump’s supporters really are deplorable?” asked The New York Times’ FiveThirtyEight blog.

“Yes, half of Trump’s supporters are racist,” The Washington Post declared.

“Polls show many — even most — Trump supporters really are deeply hostile to Muslims and nonwhites,” Vox wrote.

(4) Fact-checking and the debate

Mr. Mook, Clinton campaign manager, told “CBS This Morning” his expectation for debate moderator Lester Holt was to call out Mr. Trump’s lies.

“We’re really focused on this opportunity that Hillary has to speak directly to the voters on the issues,” Mr. Mook said in an interview Monday morning. “But we are concerned that Donald Trump may lie, he may throw misinformation out there, and that Hillary will have to spend all of her time trying to correct the record rather than talking about the things she wants to accomplish.”

The Clinton campaign had been pushing the fact-checking narrative days before and warning of Mr. Trump’s lies. So like the good foot soldiers they are, The New York Times, Politico, The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times all ran stories on Sunday and Monday — prior to the debate — about how dishonest Mr. Trump was. Bloomberg News and NPR announced they would be fact-checking the debate live.

And the pressure on Mr. Holt worked. He interrupted Mr. Trump six times to correct the record. And for Mrs. Clinton? Not one real follow-up question.

(5) Miss Universe Alicia Machado

In the debate, Mrs. Clinton intentionally laid a trap.

“And one of the worst things he said was about a woman in a beauty contest. He loves beauty contests, supporting them and hanging around them. And he called this woman ‘Miss Piggy.’ Then he called her ‘Miss Housekeeping,’ because she was Latina. Donald, she has a name,” Mrs. Clinton said.

“Where did you find this? Where did you find this?” Mr. Trump asked, dumbfounded.

“Her name is Alicia Machado,” Mrs. Clinton said.

The next day, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign had a press conference with journalists to introduce them to Ms. Machado, and CNN’s Anderson Cooper put her in a prime-time slot.

Mr. Trump — unable to help himself — double-down on the former beauty queen and said on “Fox and Friends” that Ms. Machado did gain weight and he tried to help her diet. The press narrative turned to Mr. Trump fat-shaming women.

“15 times Donald Trump fat-shammed women and men,” Cosmopolitan wrote.

Stephen Colbert tore into Mr. Trump on his “Late Show.”

“Now, these comments could really hurt Trump with the small, special interest group of Americans who gain weight,” Mr. Colbert joked on Wednesday night. Of Mr. Trump’s defense, admitting Ms. Machado’s weight gain was a “real problem,” Mr. Colbert replied “See? It wasn’t fat-shaming, because she was fat.”

And the circus is sure to continue, after Mr. Trump attacked Ms. Machado on his Twitter feed Friday, questioning her background.

Meanwhile, the Clinton camp sits back and smiles, and the press is all too eager to report on a former model gaining weight than the real policy issues in this campaign.

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