RNC Threatens To Boycott NBC And CNN Due To Hillary Clinton Programming

by UInterviewAugust 7, 2013, 12:00 amNews >

The Republican National Committee plans to boycott both NBC and CNN if they choose to continue with their planned Hillary Clinton programming.

CNN has plans to produce and air a documentary about Clinton, the former Secretary of State and potential 2016 Presidential candidate, while NBC has ordered a miniseries staring Diane Lane as Clinton.

The Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus has announced that, if CNN and NBC don't pull the plug on these two projects before August 14 – the date of the RNC’s Summer Meeting – he will enact a boycott against the major networks during the 2016 election.

“If you have not agreed to pull this programming prior to the start of the RNC’s Summer Meeting on August 14, I will seek a binding vote of the RNC stating that the committee will neither partner with you in 2016 primary debates nor sanction primary debates which you sponsor,” Priebus wrote in a letter to NBC.

Priebus sees NBC’s Hillary Clinton programming as a kind of propaganda that could be used to promote Clinton’s supposed Presidential campaign, calling it “an extended commercial for Secretary Clinton’s nascent campaign.”

“Out of a sense of fairness and decency and in the interest of the political process and your company’s reputation [CNN], I call on you to cancel this political ad masquerading as an unbiased production,” reads the letter sent by the RNC to CNN.

Allison Gollust, a CNN spokeswoman, released a statement addressing the potential ban by the RNC.

“This documentary will be a non-fiction look at the life of a former First Lady and Secretary of State. Instead of making premature decisions about a project that is in the very early stages of development and months from completion, we would encourage the members of the Republican National Committee to reserve judgment until they know more. Should they decide not to participate in debates on CNN, we would find it curious, as limiting their debate participation seems to be the ultimate disservice to voters,” Gollust said.

As for NBC, they maintain that Priebus failed to make the distinction between dramatic, fictional programming produced by NBC Entertainment and news produced by NBC News. NBC News spokeswoman Erika Masonhall took to twitter to clear up any confusion.

Heads of the GOP in Iowa and Nevada have also pledged to boycott CNN and NBC with the RNC, and have found an unexpected ally in the liberal media. David Brock, the founder of Media Matters For America, and, reportedly, a Clinton supporter, expressed his concern simply based on a viewer’s standpoint.

“Will you allow NBC News’ name to be tarnished by NBC Entertainment’s pursuit of ratings?” asks Brock.

The RNC have started a petition in their efforts to get the NBC and CNN programming canceled, titled ‘Hold The Liberal Media Accountable!’

– Olivia Truffaut-Wong

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