Reince Priebus has
made another baldfaced royal proclamation on behalf of The Party That Runs The Show:
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| Try Ex-Lax, Reince! |
Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus on Monday called on both NBC and CNN to drop their planned film productions of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton or face losing their partnerships with the RNC for 2016 presidential primary debates.
CNN, at least, had
something to say about that:
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| Madame Secretary |
Puzzled over what they say would be a "premature" decision to pull several 2016 presidential primary debates should a documentary on Hillary Clinton go forward, CNN on Monday called on the RNC to "reserve judgment" before committing what they call the "ultimate disservice to voters."
A party whose national committee chair has a name reminiscent of European royalty really should think twice before behaving toward one or more of the major television networks as if the party were, in fact, royalty who could dictate to the networks what they could or could not broadcast. I mean, really: in the 2000 presidential
selection, it was the CEO of ABC who called the election for GeeDubya Bush. I think the power of the networks to run the show on election night is well-established, whatever Republican royalty (or ordinary citizens) may think of that.
I just posted on this. My first reaction was WTF is wrong with the RNC? CNN and NBC aren't writing about it but CBS and ABC are.
ReplyDeleteThey can't cancel things in production without taking a loss, and that is not something the shareholders would like.
If I was in PR for either network I would start referring to the potential loss as an RNC 'tax' on the network and censorship.
Maybe they'll find someone other than John McCain and Lindsey Graham for their talk shows ;)
Bryan, if Priebus (or whoever made this truly stupid decision) had two brain cells to put together. he'd realize that there's a decent chance that CNN would put a negative spin on Hillary's career as Secretary of State... it's not as if CNN has ever been a big fan of either of the Clintons. But no, Reince had to go off half-cocked, issuing threats he and the GOP can't possibly afford to make good on without damaging their own cause. Dems don't even have to scream "censorship"; the word practically shouts itself, again and again. It's like cheap shampoo: lather Reince; repeat.
DeleteI don't understand the talk shows' love of John McCain. Everything McCain says, no matter how good it may be in policy terms, comes out sounding like "Get off my lawn!"
I heard about this on CBS News this afternoon. I was pretty much baffled, as was the person they were interviewing. The networks really don't like carrying the debates in the first place because they get lousy ratings and lose money, it's as if he's threatening Eskimos with loss of their freezers! Plus, the interviewee noted that the documentary on CNN unlikely to be flattering to Hilary. She has a lot of baggage.
DeleteIn short, Rancid Prenis just threatened CNN and NBC with the comfy chair..
'tux, the GOP itself seems to have bought into the culture of victimhood. What it can possibly gain by that I cannot say. Nobody likes a whiner, and this seems damned close to whining.
DeleteIn my youth, the debates seemed a great idea. Now they're staged productions in which everyone hopes his/her opponent will make a fatal mistake. They also provide more air time to the two candidates who can actually afford enough air time in the first place. We continue to hold them because "debate" sounds so democratic, even if these debates change nothing. I'd be glad to see them end.