Clinton circus has become too much, even for political junkies
Hillary Rodham Clinton did nothing to make news Friday morning, yet her name quickly dominated the online news cycle.
A flurry of Web stories was set off after an anonymous Democrat told a newspaper based in Britain that perhaps she will make news Sunday. Of course, the news she would make -- that she is running for president -- would not really be news.
Everybody already knows the former first lady and secretary of State is running for president, defying a widely accepted definition of news as information that is not previously known.
But we are not even there yet.
On Friday, the news was an unofficial disclosure of an announcement.
Actually, not even that. Clinton’s campaign won’t confirm anything yet.
So the news was the leak that an announcement of an announcement might be coming. On social media. Or in Iowa. Or both.
The report in the Guardian set the mob of Washington reporters assigned to cover Clinton into a stampede.
Major news outlets scurried to confirm, through their own anonymous sources, that the non-news event was pending.
Even for some veteran political junkies, the circus around Clinton has become a little too much.
Mark Halperin of Bloomberg Politics voiced his bemusement on Twitter. “Fifteen sources close to Hillary Clinton say her announcement video will involve Claymation, vaudeville, seltzer & 101 dalmatians,” he wrote.
Political journalist Sasha Issenberg also chimed in: “BREAKING: Hillary Clinton will announce her candidacy on a day of the week and will use computers to do it.”
Twitter: @evanhalper
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