An unpaid woman adviser wielded real power through press manipulation and loyalty

Evidence

And interrupting and outshouting them, the Governor, the voice of experience in the quartet of reform, refusing to let anyone agree or curry favor with him, hashing out ideas as an equal. And, always, sitting apart, knitting, saying nothing until the Governor turned to her and asked, “What do you think, Mrs. M?” the plump, matronly little woman—a woman whose qualities astonished the capital more each day. She could mother reporters and bring them chicken soup when they were sick and call them at midnight with the inside tips that they treasured, but when one wrote something about Smith that she didn’t like, she knew how to persuade his editor to transfer him from the Albany beat. (When, years later, he again wrote something she didn’t like, she could tell the reporter’s friends, smiling sweetly, “Well, he had better remember that I got him before.”) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 606

Categorization

• SHARE: The detail of an unpaid adviser who could get reporters fired — and joked about having ‘gotten’ one before — is exactly the kind of thing to share with someone who writes about political staff dynamics or women in political history.
• XREF: connects to: Traditional women exercised political agency from behind the scenes — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 961

Broader Connections

• Traditional women exercised political agency from behind the scenes #exemplifies (0.90) — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 961