As the liberal media mounts major assaults on the record and character of potential Republican presidential candidates, Democrats are circling the wagons in order to protect Hillary Clinton — and stifling free inquiry in the process.
The Washington Free Beacon has combed through the archives of President Clinton’s papers at the University of Arkansas and come up with several scoops in the last few months that have reflected badly on the former secretary of state.
On Tuesday, the dean of the library — a contributor to Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign — informed the conservative publication that they were barred from further study of the Clinton papers because they failed to fill out a form.
Library dean Carolyn Henderson Allen informed editor-in-chief Matthew Continetti in a June 17 letter that the library had “officially suspended” the Free Beacon‘s research privileges.
The Free Beacon published the Hillary Papers, drawn from the archive of the late Clinton confidante Diane Blair, in February. Those papers are also housed in the special collections at the University of Arkansas.
“I am writing you to direct you and the Washington Beacon Press to cease and desist your ongoing violation of the intellectual property rights of the University of Arkansas with regard to your unauthorized publication of audio recordings obtained from the Roy Reed Collection,” wrote Allen.
According to Allen, who contributed $500 to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2007, the Free Beacon violated library rules by failing to submit a form requesting permission to publish the materials.
Allen called on the news outlet to “immediately remove the audio recordings of the Roy Reed Collection from your website” and “immediately return all audio recordings obtained from the Roy Reed Collection previously provided to you.”
The Clinton donor also expressed deep disappointment with the Free Beacon.
“I am very disappointed in your willful failure to comply with the policies of Special Collections,” she wrote.
“The University of Arkansas takes great pride in making materials, such as the Roy Reed Collection, available to researchers from around the world. The University, however, does not tolerate the blatant and willful disregard of its intellectual property rights and policies.”
Allen said the university would consider lifting the suspension if the Free Beacon complied with all its demands to remove the materials from its website.
The tapes in question include an interview that dealt with Clinton’s defense of a child rapist in the 1970’s. She laughed about the way she got him off with time served.
Mark Hemingway at the Weekly Standard reminds us of Stanley Kurtz’s quest to go through the papers and records of Barack Obama at the University of Chicago. He links to a Kurtz post at NRO explaining his difficulties:
This much we know from the public record, but a large cache of documents housed in the Richard J. Daley Library at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), is likely to flesh out the story. That document cache contains the internal files of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. The records in question are extensive, consisting of 132 boxes, containing 947 file folders, a total of about 70 linear feet of material. Not only would these files illuminate the working relationship between Obama and Bill Ayers, they would also provide significant insight into a web of ties linking Obama to various radical organizations, including Obama-approved foundation gifts to political allies. Obama’s leadership style and abilities are also sure to be illuminated by the documents in question.
Unfortunately, I don’t yet have access to the documents. The Special Collections section of the Richard J. Daley Library agreed to let me read them, but just before I boarded my flight to Chicago, the top library officials mysteriously intervened to bar access
Meanwhile, Scott Walker is only the latest potential GOP presidential candidate to become a target of vicious hit pieces by liberal media. Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Chris Christie, and Rick Perry have all found themselves with a bulls eye on their chest, with precious little done to prevent the onslaught.
No doubt Hillary’s team are frantically going through those papers as this is being written, hoping to scrub anything that could be used against her, as Obama’s handlers have already done.
Anything revealing in those two collections will be gone by the time 2016 ends.
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