The Republican National Committee has voted to exclude CNN and NBC from the GOP Presidential primary debates in 2016 because of the networks’ plans for Hillary Clinton projects.
RNC chairman Reince Priebus threatened to shut out CNN and NBC from airing the debates after they announced separate projects about the former First Lady and Secretary of State. NBC is developing a mini-series with Diane Lane as Clinton, while CNN Films is working on a documentary on her life. Both projects are planned for 2014, two years before the 2016 election and neither of them have been completed.
Still, GOP leaders approved of a non-binding resolution to follow through with Priebus’ threat. According to Time, the RNC said that the projects “are an attempt to show political favoritism and put a thumb on the scales for the next presidential election.”
The resolution, titled “A resolution in support of media objectivity and accountability,” continues, “Airing this programming will jeopardize will the credibility of CNN and NBC as supposedly unbiased news networks and undermine the perceived objectivity of the coverage of the 2016 presidential campaign by these networks.”
“We’re done putting up with this nonsense,” Priebus said during the Friday meeting in Boston, notes The Washington Post. “There are plenty of other news outlets, we’ll still reach plenty of voters… but CNN and NBC anchors will just have to watch on competing networks.”
Priebus also noted how NBC News reporters have slammed NBC’s plans, but then brought up the rumors that Alec Baldwin will host an MSNBC show.
NBC’s project is at such an early stage that it doesn’t even have a TV studio officially signed to produce it. Ironically, it was reported last week that Fox TV Studios is in talks with NBC to make the mini-series. Fox TV is a sister company of the conservative news channel Fox News.
image: Wikimedia Commons
