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Mainstream media can't bear to admit the Washington Free Beacon scooped them

February 11, 2014

Washington Free Beacon reporter Alana Goodman's scoop featuring new insights on former First Lady and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton made waves around the country Monday, becoming a discussion topic on every cable news channel and broadcast network.

However, some in the mainstream media couldn't bring themselves to say the "Washington Free Beacon" had reported the new findings on Clinton, with some substituting "conservative website" or even "anti-Clinton website."

Andrea Mitchell rolled her eyes at the story on Morning Joe Tuesday despite having reported on it during her MSNBC program Andrea Mitchell Reports as well as on NBC Nightly News. CrossFire's Van Jones laughed off the report from the "conservative website," and former Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein questioned the presentation methods of the "right-wing websites" on the piece.

Much of the mainstream media reporting on Goodman's story focused on Clinton's reaction to her husband cheating with intern Monica Lewinsky, while ignoring revelations about her quest to stop a Supreme Court nomination for political reasons, her reported support for single-payer health care, and how she wanted to downplay a sexual harassment scandal involving a Republican congressman since she "needs him on health care."

Goodman's story reported on previously unpublished documents contained in the University of Arkansas archive of Diane Blair, one of Hillary Clinton's closest friends until her death in 2000. The archive includes diary entries, correspondences, notes, strategy memos and contemporaneous accounts of conservations she had with the Clintons dating back to the 1970s.