HRC plot to use press pals in a ‘Pinch’

A former top Hillary Clinton aide advised her campaign to use minority and women journalists to “shame” The New York Times and other media outlets into giving Clinton more favorable coverage, says a hacked e-mail released Wednesday.

Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress and a staunch Clinton backer, wrote to John Podesta sharing “Howard’s advice,” a reference to Howard Wolfson, communications director for Clinton’s 2008 presidential bid, and a former top aide to ex-Mayor Mike Bloomberg.

Wolfson, according to Tanden, “thinks the brown and women pundits can shame the times and others on social media. So cultivating [them] to defend her is helpful. They can be emboldened.”

Tanden called Times publisher Arthur “Pinch” Sulzberger “a pretty big wuss,” susceptible to pressure, in the July 2015 e-mail released by WikiLeaks.

In response, The Times said Sulzberger often “engages” with news subjects but is a “champion of independent journalism.”