In an April 11 post on Time magazine's Swampland weblog, Time Washington bureau chief Jay Carney observed that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) “has put out a statement condemning” MSNBC host Don Imus' recent reference to the Rutgers women's basketball team as “nappy-headed hos.” Carney further noted that Clinton “has a link on her website that allows visitors to 'send a message of respect and support' to the young women of Rutgers.' ” In a follow-up post, however, Time national political correspondent Karen Tumulty appeared to suggest that Clinton's campaign is attempting to benefit from the recent controversy. Tumulty wrote: “Hmmm ... and right next to that Respect for Rutgers/”Send a Message" link on her website is a big red one that says CONTRIBUTE. Sisterhood is powerful."
But the “CONTRIBUTE” icon Tumulty referred to was not “right next” to the “Respect for Rutgers” link. Rather, it is a permanent fixture on the home page of the Clinton campaign's website (as are large red “contribute” buttons also on the campaign websites of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R)).
Following is a screen capture of HillaryClinton.com at 7 p.m. ET on April 11. The link regarding the Rutgers women's basketball team can be seen on the left, and the contribution icon appears on the right sidebar:
As a cached screen capture from April 6 clearly shows, however, the contribute button was present on the right sidebar even before her “Respect for Rutgers” announcement was posted.
Furthermore, there is no prominent contribution link in the section of Clinton's website where supporters can leave messages for the Rutgers women: