On Friday the Republican National Committee formally passed a resolution at its summer meeting to not partner with NBC or CNN on debates if they air any of the planned Hillary Clinton projects.
According to Politico.com, "RNC Chairman Reince Priebus got an extended standing ovation from cheering state chairmen during the party's summer meeting for spearheading the push." Priebus announced: "We're done putting up with this nonsense. CNN and NBC will just have to watch on their competitors' network...The media overplayed their hand this time."
Politico's James Hohmann, in the August 16 article, also reported: "Priebus said that reports that actor Alec Baldwin could get an MSNBC show during primetime validates his complaint that NBC News is not truly separate from the NBC Entertainment division. He noted that even Maureen Dowd praised him for taking a stand in a New York Times column and said going to other outlets might mean the debates get in front of more voters."
According to the Wrap.com, CNN has responded to the RNC's announcement:
CNN has responded to the RNC's Friday vote to ban its presidential primaries from the network in response to its plans to air a documentary about possible 2016 candidate Hillary Clinton.The channel emphasized that the documentary was still in the very early stages, so the RNC's response was premature and based on little more than speculation.Also read: Republicans Ban CNN, NBC From Hosting Debates Because of Hillary Clinton Projects"Speculation about the final program is just that," the network said. "We encouraged all interested parties to wait until the program premieres before judgments are made about it.""Unfortunately, the RNC was not willing to do that."Here's the statement:CNN Films, a division of CNN Worldwide, commissioned a documentary about Hillary Clinton earlier this year. It is expected to premiere in 2014 with a theatrical run prior to airing on CNN. The CNN broadcast date has not been determined. This documentary will be a non-fiction look at the life of a former First Lady and Secretary of State. The project is in the very early stages of development, months from completion with most of the reporting and the interviewing still to be done. Therefore speculation about the final program is just that. We encouraged all interested parties to wait until the program premieres before judgments are made about it. Unfortunately, the RNC was not willing to do that.
