The Media were playing along with the narrative that Clinton was the most corrupt politician ever, maybe in an effort to appease the right? They also gave Trump way too much air time. The Overton window moved so much during the campaign.
http://www.salon.com/2016/11/09/the-hillary-clinton-campaign...
And the DNC/Clinton campaign worked closely with a number of outlets (like NYT) to publish various stories.
https://theintercept.com/2016/10/09/exclusive-new-email-leak...
This comes from the leaked e-mails, not hearsay.
Those Goldman speeches were a constant hum throughout a year of campaigning, and when they were finally released against her will, they were a no-op. If she had released them the minute they were asked for, and apologized for anything in them that didn't agree with her current stances, they would have been gone in one news cycle. The emails went on forever, because instead of saying sorry and claiming technical ignorance, she blamed everyone but herself. Every time she blamed someone or something else - that's a new story that has to be written.
edit: The main feature of these two stories? Nobody is even claiming that Russians had anything to do with either of them. The leaked emails that the usual suspects are blaming on the Russians just had the effect of confirming Sanders supporters' suspicions; she lost their votes when she characterized them all as privileged white male children.
The exposure they gave Trump is something that also backfired. :-)