Should Portfolio Allow Matthew Cooper to Write About Hillary?

We’re still a tantalizing 37 days away from the launch of Condé Nast’s multimillion-dollar business magazine Portfolio, yet there may already be a controversy brewing. Matt Cooper, the former Time magazine writer who, along with Valerie Plame, was a central figure in the CIA leak case and Scooter Libby trial, is the magazine’s Washington editor. His wife, Mandy Grunwald, is a chief ad strategist in Hillary Clinton. Cooper tells the L.A. Times he expects to write about Clinton and “to acknowledge my wife works for Hillary … at least on Hillary-centric stories.”

Portfolio isn’t the only business magazine to have a potential conflict of interest problem. Fortune Washington bureau chief and Fox News analyst Nina Easton‘s husband, Russ Schriefer, is a media strategist for John McCain. She says she will not write about McCain, and will issue occasional disclaimers to tell FNC TV viewers about her indirect ties to McCain.

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