As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton used a personal email account for all her correspondence, the
New York Times reports. "To comply with federal record-keeping practices," Clinton has turned 55,000 pages of emails over to the State Department.
Previous secretaries of state, including Colin Powell, have similarly used personal email accounts to conduct official business. And other Republicans, including Mitt Romney and many in the Bush-Cheney administration, have used private accounts or actively sought to hide correspondence. Democrats should expect higher standards, of course, but it's not actually clear that Clinton was trying to hide anything. That, however, is the spin the New York Times took from whichever Republican campaign or committee fed it the story:
The story, coming on the heels of recent news accounts criticizing the Clinton Foundation’s handling of foreign donations, could present a challenge for Mrs. Clinton’s fledgling campaign, feeding the perception that she is secretive — an accusation that has dogged her since her time as first lady.
Way to make it clear that feeding that particular perception is what this is all about. Clinton should certainly continue to do everything possible to ensure that her records are properly preserved, and should offer some explanation of how and why this happened, but the proper context for reading reporting on this is "Republicans push story that furthers narrative they've taken a long time building."