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The Gray Area with Sean Illing

The New York Times’s lead Clinton reporter reflects on her coverage

The Gray Area with Sean Illing

Vox Media Podcast Network

Politics, News, Society & Culture, News Commentary, Philosophy

4.511.1K Ratings

🗓️ 3 May 2018

⏱️ 55 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It’s time to talk about the damn emails — and the way the media covered them. Amy Chozick reported on Hillary Clinton for a decade. She was there as Clinton’s campaign fell short in the 2008 Democratic primaries. And as the New York Times’s lead reporter on the Clinton campaign in 2016, she was there as Clinton seemed certain to win in 2016 — and there on that night in November when she lost. Her new book, Chasing Hillary, is a memoir of these years and that reporting. In it, Chozick reflects on her coverage of Clinton, her relationship with the candidate, the incentives of her newsroom, and how all of it intertwined with her own life. It’s an unusually honest book, exposing much more of the psychodrama that exists between politicians, campaign staff, editors, and reporters than is normally shown, and Chozick is frank about both her discomfort with some of the stories she wrote and the ways her subjects tried to manipulate her. In this conversation, we talk about the emails, as well the media’s deep and pervasive biases, what Trump could do that Clinton couldn’t, the ways campaign coverage distorts campaign reporting, our gendered expectations for politicians, Chozick's clashes with Bernie Sanders supporters, Chelsea Clinton’s criticisms of Chozick’s book, and much more. Books: What It Takes: The Way to the White House by Richard Ben Cramer Nixon Agonistes: The Crisis of the Self-Made Man by Gary Willis A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton by Carl Bernstein The Boys on the Bus by Timothy Crouse Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hillary used to say this line in Iowa.

0:02.4

My only promise to you is that I won't over promise.

0:05.2

But you know, you don't need a room full of posters

0:07.8

to tell you that voters prefer charismatic men

0:10.4

who wildly over promise.

0:12.0

[♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪

0:24.1

Hello and welcome to Mr. Clanchon,

0:25.2

the Box Media Podcast Network.

0:26.9

Today's episode is with Amy Chosek,

0:29.2

who is author of the new book,

0:30.8

Chasing Hillary, 10 Years Two Presidential Campaigns,

0:33.6

and one in tact glass ceiling.

0:35.7

Chosek was the New York Times's lead Hillary Clinton reporter.

0:39.1

In 2016, she also covered her in 2008,

0:41.7

and she's written,

0:42.8

I've read a lot of campaign books in my time.

0:46.0

I don't think I've read one that is this honest

0:49.3

about what it is like to report on a campaign.

0:51.5

It is much more of a memoir than it is a book about the campaign itself.

0:56.0

But it's fascinating in that way.

0:58.0

And Chosek is more reflective than I think most in the media

1:02.2

have been about what coverage of Hillary Clinton has been like,

...

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