It’s much easier to run a presidential campaign when you have America’s top journalists working as your paid political operatives.

Folks working at the highest echelons of media, who can spin a story any way you want. Your “go-to” people for coverage that has all the trappings of objectivity and fairness.

Folks like Maggie Haberman.

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Among the hundreds of messages released by WikiLeaks from John Podesta’s email account is one that discusses how Hillary Clinton’s campaign should approach announcing her candidacy. It’s dated Jan. 13, 2015, back when Haberman worked at Politico. (She’s now at the New York Times, which shows what good connections can get you.)

The email is from Nick Merrill, then the 2016 spokesman for Clinton’s campaign.

They start out discussing how they’re going to “shape” a news story that puts a positive spin on Hillary’s impending announcement. The subject is “Earned Media/Next Steps”:

Objective: As media attention increasingly turns to 2016 and Secretary Clinton continues to move towards a decision, we want to be proactive in shaping a public narrative that does three things: 1) Explains on our own terms who she’s meeting and talking with, both in terms of potential campaign hires and policy advisors. She’s casting a wide net, looking for the best talent, and listening to people with bold ideas from across the party. Notably, she is specifically reaching out to progressive policy experts and to people in the Obama orbit, demonstrating that she is doing things differently this time. She will be positioned to run a thoughtful, successful, forward-looking and technological advanced campaign, should she decide to run. 2) Provides cover and context for recruiting the best people and appealing to those who are looking for signals about whether this is something that they want to be a part of. 3) Begins to build energy and enthusiasm among Democrats for a forward-looking potential candidacy that will offer a bold vision for the future.

Typical PR blather … but they’re getting to a point…Who should they tap to write this story? Who indeed…

Placing a Story RELATED: Dick’s Employee Pens Brutal Resignation Letter Over New Gun Policy As discussed on our call, we are all in agreement that the time is right place a story with a friendly journalist in the coming days that positions us a little more transparently while achieving the above goals. Who: For something like this, especially in the absence of us teasing things out to others, we feel that it’s important to go with what is safe and what has worked in the past, and to a publication that will reach industry people for recruitment purposes. We have has [sic] a very good relationship with Maggie Haberman of Politico over the last year. We have had her tee up stories for us before and have never been disappointed. While we should have a larger conversation in the near future about a broader strategy for reengaging the beat press that covers HRC, for this we think we can achieve our objective and do the most shaping by going to Maggie.

At The New York Times, Maggie Haberman is now the reporter who covers the 2016 campaign. I’m sure you could have guessed, but he stories are not exactly the epitome of objectivity. Here’s a snapshot of the articles she’s done for The Times lately:

Any self-respecting reporter should be ashamed at being outed as a shill for any political candidate. But the truth is, they’re everywhere.

Whatever the outcome of the November election, the mainstream media can take credit for a sizable chunk of the vote for Hillary Clinton.

And the worst part is – they’ll be proud of it.

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