and that reporter determined that the allegation was false.” Alleged breaches of journalistic norms When Blumenthal was a journalist he would sometimes offer Hillary Clinton political advice and several journalists claimed that offering political advice to Clinton crossed a line as a journalist. Blumenthal also attempted to dissuade journalists and reporters from writing negative pieces about the Whitewater controversy, Travelgate, and Bill Clinton's personal character. In 1995, when Blumenthal was named the chief Washington correspondent for The New Yorker, the position was one of the most prestigious in American journalism. His tenure in the position proved tumultuous, with several of his colleagues alleging that Blumenthal's journalism exhibited extreme bias in favor of then-President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton, that Blumenthal was informally providing political and public relations advice to the Clintons while covering both of them, and that Blumenthal was engaged in disparaging and attacking The New Yorker colleagues whom he believed were writing too critically of the Clintons. The Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz wrote at the time: "Peter Boyer, a New Yorker writer, says Blumenthal tried to sabotage his story about the Travelgate affair last year. Boyer says he mentioned the piece to his colleague after learning that Blumenthal had lunched with Clinton's friend Harry Thomason on the day the Hollywood producer pushed for the firing of the White House travel office employees... Boyer says he was later told by Harry Thomason or his wife, Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, that Blumenthal had warned them Boyer was anti-Clinton and planned to smear them, leading to a series of legal threats against the magazine. Boyer, who fired off an angry memo to New Yorker Editor Tina Brown, accuses Blumenthal of journalistic corruption". Personal life Blumenthal lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife, Jacqueline (née Jordan). The couple married in 1976, and have two sons, journalists Max, editor of The Grayzone website, and Paul Blumenthal, a political writer for The Huffington Post. References External links New York Review of Books on Clinton Wars 1948 births American activist journalists American essayists American male journalists American political writers American political consultants Brandeis University alumni Clinton administration personnel Hillary Clinton Illinois Democrats Jewish activists Jewish American writers Journalists from Illinois Living people Senior Advisors to the President of the United States The New Republic people Writers from Chicago