The Washington Post thinks coverage of Hillary Clinton's emails is officially 'out of control'


The newspaper that brought down Richard Nixon thinks this whole Hillary Clinton email brouhaha has gone too far. After an exhaustive congressional inquiry, countless FOIA dumps, and fruitless FBI investigation, the final straw was Matt Lauer. "Judging by the amount of time NBC's Matt Lauer spent pressing Hillary Clinton on her emails during Wednesday's national security presidential forum, one would think that her homebrew server was one of the most important issues facing the country this election," The Washington Post editorial board wrote Thursday night. "It is not."
In an editorial titled "The Hillary Clinton email story is out of control," The Washington Post noted that Lauer spent a third of his 30 minutes with Clinton asking about the server, meaning that crucial national security issues like Chinese maritime aggression and NSA spying "did not even get mentioned in the first of 5½ precious prime-time hours the two candidates will share before Election Day." But sadly, the Post continues, "Lauer's widely panned handling of the candidate forum was not an aberration." This obsession with Clinton's emails is reflected in polls that show voters trust Donald Trump more than Clinton.
Clinton "is hardly blameless," the editorial concedes, but her "emails have endured much more scrutiny than an ordinary person's would have, and the criminal case against her was so thin that charging her would have been to treat her very differently." The email story "has vastly exceeded the boundaries of the facts," and "there is no equivalence between Ms. Clinton's wrongs and Mr. Trump's manifest unfitness for office." You can read the entire editorial at The Washington Post.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
Mission Impossible – The Final Reckoning: an 'awe-inspiringly bananas' conclusion
The Week Recommends Tom Cruise undertakes 'death-defying' stunt set pieces in this 'dazzlingly ambitious' finale
-
Could medics' misgivings spell the end of the assisted dying bill?
Today's Big Question The Royal College of Psychiatrists has identified 'serious concerns' with the landmark bill – and MPs are taking notice
-
The Chelsea Townhouse: London luxury feels right at home
The Week Recommends This boutique hotel strikes the right note between sophisticated and cosy
-
Trump vows to lift Syria sanctions
speed read The move would help the new government stabilize the country following years of civil war
-
Senate rejects Trump's Library of Congress takeover
speed read Congress resisted the president's attempts to control 'the legislative branch's premier research body'
-
Hamas frees US hostage in deal sidelining Israel
speed read Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old soldier, was the final living US citizen held by the militant group
-
White Afrikaners land in US as Trump-declared refugees
speed read An exception was made to Trump's near-total ban on admitting refugees for the white South Africans
-
Qatar luxury jet gift clouds Trump trip to Mideast
speed read Qatar is said to be presenting Trump with a $400 million plane, which would be among the biggest foreign gifts ever received by the US government
-
Trump taps Fox News' Pirro for DC attorney post
speed read The president has named Fox News host Jeanine Pirro to be the top federal prosecutor for Washington, replacing acting US Attorney Ed Martin
-
Trump, UK's Starmer outline first post-tariff deal
speed read President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Kier Starmer struck a 'historic' agreement to eliminate some of the former's imposed tariffs
-
Fed leaves rates unchanged as Powell warns on tariffs
speed read The Federal Reserve says the risks of higher inflation and unemployment are increasing under Trump's tariffs