The former First Lady’s routine lunch stop at a Chipotle restaurant in Ohio seemingly garnered more media scrutiny than her use of a private e-mail account for official government business, a testament to the mainstream media’s waning relevance.
On Monday, the former Secretary of State’s “Scooby Van” stopped at a Chipotle chain store in Maumee where the democrat presidential candidate picked up an apparently newsworthy burrito bowl.
"where is Hillary" coverage is so funny. Reporters tracking down footage like she's a fugitive–at chipotle via ABC pic.twitter.com/yxeWwW3lS7
— Joe St. George (@JoeStGeorge) April 13, 2015
Never thought Hillary going to Chipotle was that big a deal #whynotmcdonalds #ChipotleGate
— Nikita Z (@znikitas) April 14, 2015
CNN scrambled to provide up-to-the-minute coverage on the mundane details of her outing, while wondering why she didn’t go to McDonald’s instead.
The New York Times speculated if Hillary’s “Above Average” order was “like the normal Chipotle meals of everday Americans,” or if it was “polarizing.”
.@nytimes legendary journalism fellas #ChipotleGate
— David Seaman (@d_seaman) April 14, 2015
But it was The New York Daily News that went beyond the call of duty by phoning the store’s manager for precise details, down to the flavor of her drink:
General manager Charles Wright told the Daily News that Clinton was in his restaurant at about 1:20 p.m., ordering a chicken burrito bowl with guacamole, a chicken salad, and a blackberry Izze soft drink.
The Washington Examiner provided a comprehensive list of the “Reporters Fascinated by Hillary Clinton’s burrito run”:
Is it possible to write an entire news story about a former New York senator’s decision to order a burrito bowl?
For reporters at the New York Times, Mashable, Business Insider, the Jerusalem Post, the Washington Post, the New York Post, Time, Breitbart, BuzzFeed, the New York Daily News, the Tampa Bay Times, the Daily Mail, ABC News, NBC News, CBS News, USA Today and New York magazine, the answer is “yes.”
Watch how a horde of reporters ran after the Clinton van when it merely drove by:
Contrastingly, TMZ – an entertainment news outlet primarily specializing in Justin Bieber-esque stories – was one of the only outlets that attempted to question Clinton on her scandal last month.
In March, it was revealed Clinton had used a private email server during her time as secretary of state for official classified State Dept. business related to national security, in violation of the Federal Records Act.
Numerous experts from across the spectrum also voiced concerns that the private server also placed classified State Department information at risk.
“While one hopes that there was at least some attempt to better secure her personal account by government security experts, it’s still almost certainly less secure,” noted Tech Dirt‘s Mike Masnick. “Given how much sensitive information the Secretary of State has to deal with, it seems inexcusable that she was allowed to conduct official business via her personal account.”
It later emerged Clinton had also made the decision last October to permanently delete all her emails, prompting Rep. Trey Gowdy to request a deeper investigation into her deletion of public records.
Had the media’s coverage of Hillary’s email scandal reached Chipotle-level last month, news outlets would likely have had something better to “taco ’bout” amid her presidential campaign announcement.
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