The founder of the conservative Washington Free Beacon on Tuesday criticized NBC reporter and MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell for not giving enough credit to the website for publishing excerpts from documents about Hillary Clinton.
“The piece wasn’t anti-Clinton, and our website isn’t anti-Clinton, but occasionally the facts are anti-Clinton–and when they are we report them. In this case, some of the documents showed Hillary as ruthless and calculating and vindictive, others showed her in quite a sympathetic light,” the Free Beacon’s Michael Goldfarb told the Daily Caller.
“It’s a shame that Mitchell couldn’t be more graceful in crediting our reporter Alana Goodman for her impressive work, but given her advanced age and deep partisanship–we forgive her for it,” he added. “You don’t get angry at your grandmother when she says something rude and uninformed, you have to be patient and understanding.”
In a story that ran on NBC “Nightly News” on Monday night and again on MSNBC on Tuesday, Mitchell said that an “anti-Clinton website” posted “inflammatory excerpts” from the documents, while showing a photo of the Washington Free Beacon story.
Mitchell also questioned why a “conservative website” is now publishing documents that have been available for four years.
“This could be part of early efforts by Republicans to muddy up Hillary Clinton, the obvious Democratic frontrunner if she runs,” she said.
Mitchell did not name the site or the reporter by name during the broadcast, but articles on the NBC and MSNBC websites later cited the Free Beacon.
Washington Free Beacon reporter Alana Goodman on Sunday published excerpts from the papers of Diane Blair, a close friend of Hillary Clinton. In the documents Blair quotes Clinton describing Monica Lewinsky as a “narcissistic loony toon.”
Watch part of the report via NBC:
And another excerpt via Newsbusters:
