Jennifer Rubin TORCHES ‘Obviously Misogynistic’ Politico In ‘OFF THE RECORD’ Email — That They Published Anyway

Tommy ChristopherSep 17th, 2021, 9:24 am
 

Jennifer Rubin TORCHES 'Obviously Misogynistic' Politico

Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin torched Politico in an email that was labeled “OFF THE RECORD” — but which Politico elected to publish anyway because they did not agree to keep her off the record in advance.

At issue is a West Wing Playbook item attacking Rubin for defending President Joe Biden and his administration after a history of being horrible before her conversion to decency by Donald Trump, and for being a favorite share of White House luminaries like Chief of Staff Ron Klain.

The piece winds up with a note that reads “Rubin responded in an email with the subject line “OFF THE RECORD.” Since we never agreed to conduct such an off-the-record conversation, we are publishing it below in full.”

Here’s that email:

How utterly predictable that Politico would run the zillionth hit piece on a prominent woman, especially one candid in her critiques of Politico’s hysterical, clickbait style of coverage. The notion that I am polarizing in a newsroom (as opposed to any of the dozens of other opinion writers) is a “take” only Politico could come up with — by of course running around to ask the question in the first place. I trust the Post’s superb news side folks spend zero time thinking about me (as is entirely appropriate). My only surprise is that Sam [Stein, POLITICO’s White House editor], a very good journalist, would become enmeshed in such an obviously misogynistic publication. Surely there are finer publications that would have him.

And btw, what a low class move to do this on Yom Kippur at the last moment.

The email cause the desired stir for the thirsty Politico gang, one of whom noted a salient subtweet from White House senior adviser Neera Tanden, who wrote “Just as a personal matter, there’s a golden rule – don’t talk to reporters who burn subjects who are off the record.”

West Wing Playbook’s Alex Thompson retweeted Tanden, and wrote “to be clear, Jennifer Rubin was not off the record and there’s nothing more important than protecting sources who are.”

That’s technically correct, I noted in a quote-tweet, but not in keeping with the unwritten rules among members of the journalism profession.

Among journalists, media outlets, and others within the industry, it is customary to honor the intention to be off the record unless there’s a compelling news reason not to do so, because if you want to respond to an email off the record, and you have to reply “Off the record?” and then wait for a reply that says “Sure,” that’s half of your day gone.

So if Jennifer Rubin blurts out “Off the record, I’m the Zodiac killer,” you could fairly print that (after first confirming it with Ted Cruz, of course), but it’s tough to see what the news value of this is. It wasn’t a violation of ethics, but it was, in technical parlance, a dick move.

The Rubin content that Playbook singled out were articles entitled “Biden delivers straight talk — and wins kudos,” about the president’s rollout of the vaccine mandate that a large majority of Americans favor; “The State Department deserves more credit for its effort to evacuate Americans from Afghanistan,” which pointed out the unprecedented scale of the airlift that was carried out under horrific and chaotic conditions; and “Why Kamala Harris’s trip to Asia was so important,” which committed the sin of noticing a historic trip by a historic vice president.

It’s all subjective, of course, but none of these seem to be the sorts of outlandish takes that would single someone out as a deluded dead-ender.

As for Rubin’s critique of Politico, I doubt very much that she’ll be all that upset that they made it public. The outlet has quickly distinguished itself in the Biden era as a source for the sort of coverage that led one Democratic strategist close to the White House to tell me that “Politico is why no one else is even competing for Pulitzers this year.”

Takes like “Don’t we all actually miss Trump?” and “Trump was transparent about the border” and “Kamala Harris is being too Black,” or scoops like “Joe Biden said this thing in private that he also already said out loud in public a bunch of times” or “STOP THE PRESSES: ‘Doug’ is short for ‘Douglas!’” and “Meghan McCain was snubbed” but she really wasn’t, combined with racist and misogynist tweets about Vice President Kamala Harris that get doubled-down on and go unpunished and a drumbeat of poorly-sourced items that depict the VP’s office and Jen Psaki’s press shop as hives of catty backbiting and disharmony to paint a picture that makes Rubin’s critique seem generous.

Now, it is also true that pre-Trump Jennifer Rubin was, indeed, very hot garbage, as West Wing Playbook helpfully cataloged. In addition to the racist crap they pointed out, she was also on board with the Obama/New Black Panther bullshit. And there was this bit that got her roasted by Stephen Colbert in 2011:

To me, that is also a great illustration of just how little difference there was between the pre-, and post-Trump Republican movements, which differed mainly in the volume and clarity of their bigotry.

And while I missed the pivot in Rubin’s trajectory, her conversion appears to be genuine and deep. Other never-Trumpers’ masks can be quick to slip, but Rubin appears to have really learned something, and I really hope that she has taken ownership of her past and apologized for it.

But if her greatest crime is growing into a decent human being, then Rubin is miles ahead of the denizens of Politico. And you can put that on the record.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.

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