Supplemental: A script became official today!

FRIDAY, AUGUST 29, 2014

The frameworks of Journalist County: Today, the script became official.

It started in an innocent fashion, with Amy Chozick reporting Hillary Clinton’s comments about Ferguson.

Basically, Clinton said next to nothing, but people had been demanding to hear it. In this morning’s New York Times, Chozick started her nothingburger news report like this:

CHOZICK (8/29/14): Nearly three weeks after the shooting of Michael Brown prompted widespread protests in a St. Louis suburb and a national examination of race and police tactics, Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday praised President Obama’s response to the episode and called for a swift investigation into the circumstances that led to the unarmed black teenager’s death.

In a paid speech at a technology conference in San Francisco, Mrs. Clinton said she watched the funeral of Mr. Brown, the 18-year-old who was shot by a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo. “As a mother, as a human being, my heart just broke for his family,” she said.

Interesting! Clinton does want an investigation! And she feels bad for the parents!

We don’t say this to criticize Clinton. There was never any reason to think that she would have some magical thing to say about these events.

Still, did you notice that one tiny point? According to Chozick, Clinton made these remarks “in a paid speech.”

That’s an unusual point to include in a report of this type. Later in her “news report,” Chozick made it official:

CHOZICK: Mrs. Clinton, who earns roughly $200,000 per speech, challenged the largely white audience to “imagine what we would feel, what we would do if white drivers were three times as likely to be searched by police during a traffic stop as black drivers, instead of the other way around,” or if one-third of all white males “went to prison during their lifetime.”

Actually, that was a pretty good point by Clinton. But good God! When have you ever seen a passage like the one we’ve highlighted?

Clinton earns roughly $200,000 per speech! We don’t think we’ve ever seen a fact like that inserted into an account of what some pol said in a speech. The fact that Chozick crammed it in tell us it’s now official:

Hillary Clinton has too much money! It will be said, again and again, over the next several years.

This is what the “press corps” does when it comes up with a standard group framework—when it decides what it wants you to think about a certain pol.

In June and July, the Washington Post went a thousand miles out of its way to create concern about Clinton’s vast barrels of cash. Today, the Times has made it official:

The script has been locked into place.

Starting Tuesday, September 2: Our award-winning series, “The Houses of Journalist County.”

If the Clintons are too damn rich, what about the glorious people who are advancing this script? We’ll visit them in their basement apartments, trying to steer our gaze away from the degradation and squalor.

We’ll review their favorite tricks for making ends meet on $15 million per year. Did you know that Diane Sawyer loves a good meatloaf sandwich?

Monday is Labor Day, of course. After that, we’ll be setting up shop in The Houses of Journalist County!