Now we know why The Hill sucks up to trump so much.

[catbyte]

Publisher's wife played undisclosed role for Melania Trump

The owner of The Hill helped arrange his wife's unpaid advisory role in the first lady's office.

By DANIEL LIPPMAN and TINA NGUYEN

06/30/2020 04:30 AM EDT

The owner of the news outlet that published the columns at the center of the Ukraine scandal helped secure an unpaid White House position for his wife — a fact the publication did not disclose to readers.

Jimmy Finkelstein, a wealthy Manhattanite who owns The Hill, was sufficiently involved that he personally discussed his wife’s arrangement with White House lawyers. His wife, former CNN producer Pamela Gross, is a longtime friend of Melania Trump, and she volunteered to help the new first lady find her footing in the East Wing.

“Hope we can get contract soon as Pamela looks forward serving [sic] the country and the First Lady,” Finkelstein emailed Stefan Passantino, the White House’s top ethics lawyer at the time, on July 5, 2017.

The White House never announced Gross’ hiring, though she spent around six months advising the first lady. Gross primarily worked from New York, but her arrangement had some trappings of White House employment: She filled out a security clearance questionnaire and was granted a White House email and cellphone, and a temporary access badge for use when she was in Washington.

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https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/30/publishers-wife-played-undisclosed-role-for-melania-trump-345053

[brooklynite]

1. Yawn...

Wonderfully ironic that the "smoking gun" about THE HILL comes from POLITICO, which folks here are equally convinced in a "right wing rag".

I keep seeing this complaint, which seems to boil down to: "they wrote a story I didn't like, so they must be biased". THE HILL (and POLITICO) write stories about politics for political professionals and politics junkies. They're not attempting to shift the opinion of voters, because voters don't read them. They run stories that are positive and negative about both Parties.

[PJMcK]

2. Nothingburger

The position was an unpaid volunteer advisory role and Ms. Gross appears to have been vetted properly.

The Hill does have a rightward slant but so what? It's owned by a Republican so one shouldn't be surprised.

Besides, as brooklynite points out, both Politico and The Hill are websites for the opinions of political insiders and junkies from both sides. Regular voters have probably never even heard of them so their influence on public opinion is nearly non-existent.