TPMMuckraker

Tapper To Sanford Aide: NBC Spot On Missing Guv Was “Slimy” And “Insulting”

Yesterday we told you about how the conservative media sucked up to Mark Sanford’s office by calling stories about the governor’s disappearance overblown — even while the gov was still AWOL.

But it looks like it wasn’t just the acknowledged right-wingers who were denigrating the story to Sanford’s aides. The State has written up a few more of the emails, and look what they found:

ABC News White House reporter Jake Tapper e-mailed Sawyer twice on June 23, both to note coverage of competitor NBC.

With a subject line of “NBC spot was slimy,” Tapper e-mailed Sawyer a “Today” show transcript of Sanford coverage, calling it “insulting.” Later, Tapper forwarded Sawyer a Twitter post [this one — TPMmuckraker] by “Meet The Press” host David Gregory.

Jeff Schneider, a vice president at ABC News, said Tapper was “carrying some water for producers who knew he had a relationship with the governor’s office.”

Oh, just carrying some water for producers, you say? Well, never mind then.

The paper also reveals that the Fox news staffer who wrote the sycophantic email we told you about yesterday, saying he found the “media frenzy” around the story “absolutely ridiculous” was Griff Jenkins.

One prominent conservative blogger also offered his help. Erick Erickson of Red State emailed to say:

If he wants something more personal for the blog to push back, I’m happy to help.

That turned out well, of course.

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