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State Department Aide Tells Reporter to ‘**** Off’
I've never seen a government official get quite this testy with a reporter. According to BuzzFeed, Clinton aide Philippe Reines sent quite the stream of profanity to one of their reporters:
On Sunday morning, BuzzFeed correspondent Michael Hastings emailed Philippe Reines, Hillary Clinton's longtime aide and personal spokesman at the State Department, asking a series of pointed questions about State's handling of the Benghazi fiasco, and Reines' over-the-top attack on CNN. The emails quickly got personal, with Reines calling Hastings an "unmitigated *******" before an exchange of harsh words on both sides.
Really, you need to read the whole thing. To be sure, Hastings was being quite provoking. But I'm not sure what Reines was thinking. There is virtually no situation in which telling a reporter to **** off is going to enhance your image. Like most people who spend a lot of time in the public eye, I have been provoked into hauling out the howitzers a few times in my career. And I have regretted doing so more than once. But to the best of my memory, I have never actually aimed them at my own head as unerringly as Reines seems to have done.
And while Hastings was being rather agressive, he was asking real questions that Americans have the right to know the answer to. I'm not sure what I think of CNN's decision to use Ambassador Stevens's diary, but there is no "fruit of the poison tree" restriction on journalists using information that has leaked, even if you question the leaker's ethics.
The information revealed in that diary—that Stevens was worried about the security situation in Benghazi for months before the attack—does seem to raise questions about what he was doing there unprotected, and reporter Michael Hastings was right to ask those questions, even if I personally would have used a much less aggressive tone.
Getting outraged about the violation of Stevens' privacy does not relieve the administration's obligation to explain how this happened. And losing your temper with a reporter just makes it seem like the questions are hitting a little too close to home.
Page has been removed. I'd love to see it. Alas, gone!
The following is the full e-mail exchange:
Quote:
From: Michael Hastings
Sent: Sunday, September 23, 2012 10:32 AM
To: Reines, Philippe I
Subject: Request for comment
Hey Philippe:
A few quick questions for you. Why didn't the State Department search the consulate and find AMB Steven's diary first? What other potential valuable intelligence was left behind that could have been picked up by apparently anyone searching the grounds? Was any classified or top secret material also left? Do you still feel that there was adequate security at the compound, considering it was not only overrun but sensitive personal effects and possibly other intelligence remained out for anyone passing through to pick up? Your statement on CNN sounded pretty defensive--do you think it's the media's responsibility to help secure State Department assets overseas after they've been attacked?
Let me know if you have a second.Michael
______________________________________ On Sun, Sep 23, 2012 at 11:28 AM, Reines, Philippe I wrote:
Good morning Michael
I'm adding my colleague Toria Nuland who I believe you know. She has addressed much of your questions below during her daily press briefings, so I'll let her weigh in to remind you of what's already been thoroughly answered. As far as the tone of my email, I think you're misreading mine as much as I'm misreading yours as being needlessly antagonistic.
But on your questions pertaining to CNN's handling of the diary:
You know that all USG personnel were evacuated from Benghazi after the attack. So I'm not sure why you're asking why State didn't find the diary first.
On material, I'll let Toria reiterate, but the answer is no. Though you might want to ask CNN if they took anything else from the crime scene that they haven't yet told anyone about.
In terms of the media's responsibility, I'll start with the outlandish statement that I believe the media does have responsibilities. Your question seems to imply they have none and any expectation of responsible behavior is too much to ask. To be specific:I believe CNN had the responsibility to act as human beings and be sensitive to their loss when they first approached the family.
I believe CNN had a responsibility to not make promises to the family it would not keep.
If that's too much to ask, I believe CNN had at the very least a responsibility to make their intentions on the use of Chris's diary clear to the family from the outset.
I believe CNN had a responsibility to not deceive its own viewers for more than 48 hours on the source of their reporting, using convoluted attribution they themselves had to clarify, before admitting it was the diary they were relying on.
I believe that when they finally did admit to using Chris's diary, they had a responsibility to their viewers and to the family to explain why they broke their pledge.
I believe that many within CNN agree with everything I'm saying.
More than anything else, I believe that CNN - since they had already read every word of the diary before calling the family on Friday the 14th, the day Chris's remains were returned home - had all the information they needed at that point to make an editorial decision on whether the contents of the diary compelled them to report on it. I believe the time to invoke their standards to justify using the diary came six days late. I believe that CNN, if they felt strongly that they had an obligation to use the diary should never have presented the family with a choice in the first place that they'd later disregard.
I don't believe that CNN should get credit for issuing a flimsy confession only when caught with their hands in the cookie jar. I believe the statement CNN issued late last night, 24 hours after Anderson Cooper's ill-conceived statement on air, basically says they agreed not to use it until they didn't feel like it anymore, and only admitted to it when they were about to be caught. I don't believe that's much of a profile in courage.
Lastly, I believe that you of all people, after famously being accused of violating agreed upon ground rules and questionable sourcing, would agree that it's important for a news organization to maintain its own integrity if it is to be trusted. That begins with keeping its word. If you can't manage that, then don't give it.
I realize that the way this works is that you only you get to ask me questions, but I have one for you: if you were in Benghazi, went to the scene of the attack, found the ambassador's diary, read every word of it, would you have called them and asked their permission to use it, then when you weren't granted that permission agree that you wouldn't use it in any way, and then a few days later just change your mind?
If the answer is yes, then you obviously agree that CNN handled this perfectly fine.
If the answer is no, if you would have decided its contents demanded reporting immediately, how would you have handled this differently then CNN?
And you should feel free to use every word above, in its entirety. Though I suspect you won't.
Philippe
______________________________________
From: Michael Hastings
Sent: Sunday, September 23, 2012 12:04 PM
To: Reines, Philippe I Cc: Nuland, Victoria J
Subject: Re: Request for comment
Philippe:
Thanks for getting back to me. No, you read my email correctly--I found your statement to CNN offensive.
From my perspective, the scandal here is that the State Department had such inadequate security procedures in place that four Americans were killed. And then the Ambassador's diary--and who knows what else--was left behind for anyone to pick up. Thankfully, it was CNN--and not Al Qaeda or some other militia--that found it and was able to return it to the family. That CNN used portions of the material in the diary they found at the scene--material that appears to contradict the official version of events that State/WH has been putting out--is completely in line with practices of good journalism.
I don't know how involved Arwa Damon has been in this. But for what it's worth, Arwa is one of the best war correspondents working today. She's consistently risked her life to get these stories, and to find out what actually happens in these conflict zones.I do agree that the media has lots of responsibilities, and CNN fulfilled its responsibility by returning the diary while still managing to inform the American public of newsworthy information. So it's unfortunate that you are trying to make a scapegoat out of CNN. That State was forced to flee Benghazi--again, because of such inadequate security, leaving behind all sorts of sensitive information--tells us more about DoS than CNN.
The misinformation here seems largely to be coming from State and the administration. The defense that the administration has offered that there was no intelligence warning of an attack is weak. If there was no intel, then clearly the CIA and other intel agents stationed in Benghazi weren't doing their jobs well. If there was intel, then we have some kind of cover-up--whether out of incompetence or ass covering before the election or just the trauma of losing four good men, it's hard for me to say at this point.
All the best,
Michael
______________________________________ On Sun, Sep 23, 2012 at 12:45 PM, Reines, Philippe I wrote:
Why do you bother to ask questions you've already decided you know the answers to?
______________________________________
From: Michael Hastings
Sent: Sunday, September 23, 2012 12:50 PM
To: Reines, Philippe I Cc: Nuland, Victoria J
Subject: Re: Request for comment
Why don't you give answers that aren't bullsh*t for a change?
______________________________________ On Sun, Sep 23, 2012 at 1:38 PM, Reines, Philippe I wrote:
I now understand why the official investigation by the Department of the Defense as reported by The Army Times The Washington Post concluded beyond a doubt that you're an unmitigated assh*le.
How's that for a non-bullsh*t response?
Now that we've gotten that out of our systems, have a good day.
And by good day, I mean F*ck Off
______________________________________
From: Michael Hastings
Sent: Sunday, September 23, 2012 01:40 PM
To: Reines, Philippe I Cc: Nuland, Victoria J
Subject: Re: Request for comment
Hah--I now understand what women say about you, too! Any new complaints against you lately?
______________________________________ On Sun, Sep 23, 2012 at 1:48 PM, Reines, Philippe I wrote:
Talk about bullsh*t - answer me this: Do you only traffic in lies, or are you on the ground floor of creating them?
And since F*ck Off wasn't clear enough, I'm done with you. Inside of 5 minutes when I can log into my desktop, you'll be designated as Junk Mail.
Have a good life Michael.
______________________________________
From: Michael Hastings
Date: Sun, Sep 23, 2012 at 1:50 PM
Subject: Re: Request for comment
To: "Reines, Philippe I" Cc: "Nuland, Victoria J"
We have to go to a uk site to get the news.. nothing on CNN. Another Obama creep trying to keep Obama's image clean so they take it out on CNN for reporting news that shows Obama and his administration as incompetent.
What is new..
Obama's people slam everyone.. Obama the king , dictator has to look perfect to the people who are either brainwashed, suffering from monomania, or just don't pay must attention and think Obama is a great guy.
I find it more than oxymoronic that they presume to lecture CNN on arriving, studying, finding Mr Steven's personal journal and leaving before anyone from state, CIA or FBI even got to the stupid country. They were probably concerned with their personal security while the CNN staffers were just concerned with getting there asap.
Perhaps they should have contracted those CNN staffers to provide security for that embassy. At least we can be sure they would have been somewhere in the immediate vicinity.
Moronic response by morons in charge of a moronic & demonstrably failed foreign policy.
These people are backed into a corner, they failed to protect our ambassador, even when everyone told them it was not safe in Libya, and told them the Libyan Security Forces were not trained or equipped properly. so when asked to speak to their utter failure they lie and distort the truth, and now they resort to offensive language.
I find it more than oxymoronic that they presume to lecture CNN on arriving, studying, finding Mr Steven's personal journal and leaving before anyone from state, CIA or FBI even got to the stupid country. They were probably concerned with their personal security while the CNN staffers were just concerned with getting there asap.
Perhaps they should have contracted those CNN staffers to provide security for that embassy. At least we can be sure they would have been somewhere in the immediate vicinity.
Moronic response by morons in charge of a moronic & demonstrably failed foreign policy.
We had American personnel already in Libya, all they had to do was go to the consulate and secure the place after the attack, but reporters beat them there, how sad.
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