The Unfortunately Unsurprising Revelations of the Podesta Emails

In the midst of the presidential debates, Wikileaks began releasing a trove of hacked emails sent and received by Hillary Clinton’s campaign chief, John Podesta. In addition to containing Clinton's much-discussed bank speeches and offering a glimpse of the internal workings of her campaign, the leak revealed her campaign's close relationship, and sometimes coordination, with the press. Reporters from The New York Times and Politico were among those revealed to have allowed the campaign to choose which quotes from otherwise off-the-record conversations would be permissible to publish.

For Donald Trump and his surrogates, the emails are blatant proof of campaign-media collusion working to tilt the election in Clinton’s favor. For seasoned media watchdogs, the Podesta emails are neither heartening nor surprising and serve primarily to confirm something they've long known: that the inside-the-beltway game of trading deference for access is infuriatingly common and completely bi-partisan.

Bob weighs in on the often shifty ethics of political reporting.

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King Rig by Erik Friedlander