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A former writer from Politico has expressed confusion over why their publication, along with several others, has yet to release leaked information from Donald Trump’s campaign.
As reported by sources, at least three prominent news organizations – New York Times, Washington Post, and Politico – received leaked internal documents from Trump’s presidential campaign earlier this week. Despite this, none of these outlets have published any information from these documents, prompting former Politico senior writer Marc A. Caputo to question their reasoning. Caputo notes, “It may be that the Times, the Post, and Politico are all working to guarantee that no erroneous information was purposefully included,” which has not been clarified by the outlets regarding their hesitance to publish.
Caputo stated that the leaked 271 pages contain vetting information on Ohio Senator JD Vance, intended to assist the Trump campaign in deciding his potential candidacy as the ex-president’s running mate. He finds it “perplexing” that these news organizations would choose not to disclose such information, as “the internal assessment of a vice presidential candidate is inherently newsworthy.”
Furthermore, Caputo referenced the internal emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign, which were hacked by an individual known as “Guccifer” in 2016, resulting in their dissemination via Wikileaks. This incident received considerable media attention, particularly from the New York Times, in the lead-up to the 2016 election. Caputo drew parallels with the Hunter Biden laptop controversy, noting that extreme caution from editors prevailed during the 2020 election as well. “That incident illustrated how journalists had learned their lessons excessively from the previous four years,” he added.
“Following the events of 2016, these news outlets might have established a stricter policy concerning the utilization of hacked materials,” Caputo proposes. “However, they should be transparent about their rationale. If the New York Times, Politico, and Washington Post have resolved that some reasons inhibit them from publishing this verified and significant information, they owe it to the public to communicate these reasons.” He emphasized the necessity of revealing the leaked information to dispel any notions of partisanship. “Establishing clearer standards is crucial, as it’s easy to foresee similar situations arising repeatedly,” he concludes.
