‘Don’t say you were blackmailed’: How Hillary’s aides strong-armed reporters into writing nicely about Clinton, revealed in secret emails

The extent of Hillary Clinton’s control over the media has been laid bare in emails from her personal spokesman which show he he ‘blackmailed’ a writer at one of America’s most prestigious magazines.

Marc Ambinder, the former politics editor at The Atlantic, agreed to describe a Clinton speech as ‘muscular’ under the orders of Philippe Reines, one of her toughest enforcers.

Ambinder agreed to write that Clinton was seated next to three powerful figures for the talk at the Council on Foreign Relations - to make her look more important.

Reines laid out his conditions in an email which had the conspiratorial joke: 'Don’t say you were blackmailed!’

Secret emails: Hillary Clinton’s (pictured left on Wednesday) control over the media has been revealed in emails from her personal spokesman Philippe Reines (pictured right) to a reporter 

Evidence: Marc Ambinder, the former politics editor at The Atlantic, agreed to describe a Clinton speech as ‘muscular’ under the orders of Philippe Reines, one of her toughest enforcers

The emails, which were reported by Gawker, show in stark detail the cozy relationships between Reines and reporters under which he traded scoops for favorable coverage for his boss.

A spokeswoman for The Atlantic confirmed to Dailymail.com that Ambinder's story ‘goes against our standards’ and did not rule out taking it down from their website.

The original article has been updated to read: ‘It is The Atlantic’s policy never to cede to sources editorial control of the content of our stories’.

The emails were obtained by Gawker after a Freedom of Information request put in four years ago, which it is suing the State Department over.

Correspondence: Reporter Marc Ambinder's emails with Philippe Reines surfaced this week

The speech Clinton gave took place on July 15 2009 and the day began with Ambinder asking Reines for an advance copy.

Among those attending would be the former US envoy to Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, the former special envoy for the Middle East, George Mitchell, and National Security Council senior director Dennis Ross.

Reines, who once told a reporter he didn’t like to ‘f*** off and have a good life’, wrote back saying that he would hand it over under three conditions.

He wrote: ‘1) You in your own voice describe them (Clinton’s remarks) as ‘muscular’

‘2) You note that a look at the CFR seating plan shows that all the envoys — from Holbrooke to Mitchell to Ross — will be arrayed in front of her, which in your own clever way you can say [is] certainly not a coincidence and meant to convey something 3) You don’t say you were blackmailed!”

Ambinder responded: ‘Ok’.

The article was published later that day and followed Reines’ suggestions closely.

It read: ‘When you think of President Obama's foreign policy, think of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

‘That's the message behind a muscular speech that Clinton is set to deliver today to the Council on Foreign Relations.

‘The staging gives a clue to its purpose: seated in front of Clinton, subordinate to Clinton, in the first row, will be three potentially rival power centers: envoys Richard Holbrooke and George Mitchell, and National Security Council senior director Dennis Ross.’

The emails also reveal that Ambinder fawned over Clinton on other occasions too.

On July 26, 2009 he wrote to Reines: ‘She kicked A on MTP (Meet the Press)’.

In an email sent on November 29 2010, Ambinder wrote Reines and email titled: ‘This is an awesome presser…’

He wrote: ‘She is PITCH f#$*& PERFECT on this stuff’.

The Atlantic was founded in 1857 and is seen as one of the most venerated magazines in the nation.

It was among the first publications to publish essays by slavery abolitionists in the 1860s and its writers currently include Ta-Nehisi Coates, winner of the MacArthur Award, also known as the ‘Genius Grant’.

Ambinder, who is now editor-at-large at The Week magazine, did not return calls and emails asking for comment.

He told Gawker that the email exchange was ‘probably at best an incomplete record of what went down’.

He said: ‘That said, the transactional nature of such interactions always gave me the willies.... Since I can’t remember the exact exchange I can’t really muster up a defense of the art, and frankly, I don’t really want to. I will say this: whatever happened here reflects my own decisions, and no one else’s.’

In another message he said: ‘It made me uncomfortable then, and it makes me uncomfortable today. And when I look at that email record, it is a reminder to me of why I moved away from all that.

‘The Atlantic, to their credit, never pushed me to do that, to turn into a scoop factory. In the fullness of time, any journalist or writer who is confronted by the prospect, or gets in the situation where their journalism begins to feel transactional, should listen to their gut feeling and push away from that.

‘Being scrupulous at all times will not help you get all the scoops, but it will help you sleep at night. At no point at The Atlantic did I ever feel the pressure to make transactional journalism the norm.

The Gawker emails raise questions over the relationship between Reines and other journalists too.

New York magazine used the word ‘muscular’ in its headline about Clinton’s speech and mocked up a picture of her with bodybuilder arms.

Another journalist who wrote a near identical story to Ambinder’s was Mike Allen, the top Washington correspondent for Politico.

He too called Clinton’s speech ‘muscular’ and mentioned the seating arrangements in his report.

Allen did not return requests for comment.

A spokesman for Politico said: ‘Mike’s preview of this speech includes multiple ‘aides say’ qualifiers and is transparent in that it’s based on ‘prepared remarks’ and a ‘seating chart.’”

Another set of emails is between Reines and Dana Hughes, a reporter with ABC News at the time, debunking a report that Clinton had been attacked by bees in Malawi.

Reines wrote: ‘One more thing since I’m giving you this gift . . . add a line taking a small poke at ‘BuzzFeed and others’ for getting this wrong’.

Hughes replied: ‘I don’t have a problem with that at all’.

Nobody for Clinton was available for comment. 

Was he coaxed? Another journalist who wrote a near identical story to Ambinder’s was Mike Allen , the top Washington correspondent for Politico. He too called Clinton’s speech ‘muscular’