Esquire EIC: ‘Why Is Everyone Calling Me?’
How about saying, "No comment?" Or "We’ve got bigger issues to deal with?" Or "We’re moving on to South Dakota?" That’s what we felt in looking at Bill Clinton and the aftermath of the Vanity Fair piece about him.
More troubling than the actual piece though was the response Clinton gave to the Huffington Post. Yes, the reporter didn’t identify herself and began by asking Clinton what he thought of the "hatchet job." But for Clinton to engage in name-calling only strengthens the core thesis of Purdum’s piece. Moreover, Clinton went on to say, "The editor of Esquire– he sent us an email yesterday and said it was the single sleaziest piece of journalism he’d seen in decades. He said it made him want to go take a shower and he was embarrassed to be a journalist when he read it."
This prompted us to reach out to Esquire editor-in-chief David Granger who quickly said: "Why is everybody calling me on this?" Granger explained to The Washington Independent that he did no such thing and that an editor on his staff had merely reached out and offered some sympathies to Doug Brand, counselor to the former president, who received harsh treatment in the piece.
"Apparently [Brand] mentioned to the president and it spun into something different," Granger said. "I did not reach out to the president, nor was I critical of the piece. I wasn’t even aware [Clinton] had said it when someone called me to confirm last night."
