Fwd: Fw: Fwd: Media Inquiry

From:john.podesta@gmail.com To: kschake@hillaryclinton.com, tcarrk@hillaryclinton.com, cheryl.mills@gmail.com Date: 2015-04-20 16:26 Subject: Fwd: Fw: Fwd: Media Inquiry

---------- Forwarded message ---------- John, FYI, Brent Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T ------------------------------ * Hi, Brent - Eileen forwarded your query. I can confirm that there was no payment of any sort. Please attribute the response below to Carolyn Ryan, Washington, DC bureau chief and Political editor, The New York Times. It represents our response on the matter. "We had access to some material in the book, but we wanted to do our own reporting."​ Danielle Danielle Rhoades Ha Executive Director, Communications The New York Times Company O: 212-556-8719 M: 917-379-6928 Danielle.Rhoades-Ha@nytimes.com @daniellerha ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Ms. Murphy, my name is Brent Budowsky, columnist for The Hill newspaper in Washington. For an upcoming column I have a question: Mr. Peter Schweizer will soon be publishing a book "Clinton Cash" etc. which makes serious allegations against Bill and Hillary Clinton. In her story about this book dated April 19, your reporter Amy Chozick includes the following: "But 'Clinton Cash' is potentially more unsettling, both because of its focused reporting and because major news organizations including The Times, The Washington Post and Fox News have exclusive agreements with the author to pursue the story lines found in the book." My question to the New York Times is: exactly what is this exclusive agreement between Mr. Schweizer and the New York Times? Is their any compensation to be offered by the New York Times to Mr. Schweizer or his publisher, or any compensation offered to the New York Times, by Mr. Schweizer or his publisher, in any form? In other words what exactly is the quid pro quo of this arrangement? The working title of my column will be "Holy War against Hillary Clinton", and one of my topics will be the relationship between the conservative and Republican media infrastructure that organizes these attacks, which is certainly their right, and how the major media reports on these attacks. This inquiry is purely fact-checking an effort to be accurate and fair in my column. I seek to ascertain the nature and details of the "exclusive relationship" between the NYT and the author and publisher of this book, and I will be candid and tell you I find this relationship strange and troubling. Normally an author publishes a book, and news organizations assign reporters to report on the content of the book without collusion or compensation beyond the normal book promotion and reporter/author relationships. I may well request a formal interview with Mr. Baquet to discuss this "relationship", but for now I would appreciate in the spirit of fact-checking and fairness the details of this "relationship." I can be reached via this email and at (202) 296-6177. In advance I appreciate your consideration, Brent Budowsky Sent from my iPad