Why the RNC is Right to Refuse Primary Debates on CNN and NBC
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus went all in against the liberal media this week, challenging both CNN and NBC to change their current plans on presenting pre-2016 Hillary features. We have to give it to Priebus for finally doing what many Republicans refuse to do: play hardball with the media. Here is part of his letter to the nets:
“It’s appalling to know executives at major networks like NBC and CNN who have donated to Democrats and Hillary Clinton have taken it upon themselves to be Hillary Clinton’s campaign operatives… Their actions to promote Secretary Clinton are disturbing and disappointing. I hope Americans will question the credibility of these networks and that NBC and CNN will reconsider their partisan actions and cancel these political ads masked as unbiased entertainment. If they 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 stating that the RNC will neither partner with these networks in 2016 primary debates nor sanction primary debates they sponsor.”
If Not to Bolster Hillary for 2016, Why?
NBC Entertainment is prepping a mini-series starring Diane Lane to portray Hillary Clinton, an interesting choice to say the least. While NBC has argued there is a difference between their “news” and “entertainment” divisions, let’s not pretend they aren’t the same company with the same goal: pushing a liberal agenda. Their entertainment division already (ridiculously) targets conservatives in shows like Law and Order. And when your 24/7 news channel is left-wing MSNBC, there is already enough distrust with the overall brand among conservatives. And now they are prepping a mini-series on Hillary, coincidentally just in time for the 2016 elections?
And while CNN likes to think they are the “objective” middle between FOX News and MSNBC, their lineup is no less liberal then FOX News’ is conservative. Piers Morgan is a straightforward lefty, while Anderson Cooper’s attempts to appear unbiased fall flat. This is, after all, the guy who once stated on-air that it must be hard for conservatives to “talk when you are tea-bagging.”
There is clearly no reason to air a movie - much less two movies - about Hillary Clinton if not to bolster Hillary heading into 2016. When the eye-popping Sarah Palin documentary The Undefeated was released in 2012, it was a clear effort to support a potential Palin presidency. But the Palin movie was not done by a major news or entertainment organization. Where is the mini-series on the Obama’s? You know, the people who actually live in the White House and who actually “made history” in 2008 and 2012? Instead, we get movies about the woman who lost to him, who just happened to probably be running in 2016.
A Lackluster Career, a Major Obsession
Hillary Clinton remains a major obsession by the media (who promptly props her up) despite not having a magnificent or spectacular career. She has no impressive achievements as a lawyer, unlike a Ted Cruz who argued and won cases in front of the US Supreme Court. As First Lady, she pushed a healthcare plan that was hated by the American public (a timeframe that just happens to be absent from the movies) and spent most of her time putting on a happy face with over Bill Clinton’s affairs. As a US Senator, she had no major accomplishments. And as Secretary of State, her effort to “reset” ties with Russia was a complete failure, and the Benghazi mess remains from her tenure. So what exactly is so impressive about Hillary Clinton?
Doc or Not, RNC Should Boycott CNN and NBC Anyway
A move to refuse to hold debates with biased news networks isn’t groundbreaking. In 2008, the candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination decided to boycott a joint FOX News/Congressional Black Caucus debate because they felt the network worked as an arm of the Republican Party. Well, welcome to the world conservatives live in. But rather than having just one ideologically opposing network to deal with, we have to deal with all of them.
In 2012, CNN correspondent Candy Crowley provided one of the biggest boosts to Barack Obama during the second presidential debate. Romney had soundly eviscerated President Obama in the first debate. He went into the second debate with most of the momentum, until Candy Crowley decided to inject herself into a back-and-forth over the Benghazi scandal. Crowley embarrassed Mitt Romney and claimed he was wrong, changing the momentum of the debate. Despite the fact that Romney was right and Crowley was wrong, and despite that CNN effectively backtracked on Crowley’s assertion, the moment provided a pivotal turning point in the race. It was the most talked about moment of the debate, and that moment was: Crowley said Obama was right. The debate was watched by ten times the audience that would have seen either a correction or effective rebuttal afterwards.
CNN provided another juicy moment, when Mitt Romney made a fairly straightforward statement that he was concerned with the Middle Class (the core argument of every presidential candidate of every party in all of time) and that he was not concerned with the wealthy or the poor because there was a safety net to help them already. Rather than be mature and realize the point that Romney was clearly making, CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien decided to go the partisan root and completely take the “I’m not concerned about the very poor” clearly out of context. The historical media bias in every election goes far beyond these few examples. The media, CNN and NBC included, refused to cover Benghazi, Fast and Furious, and green energy scams in a way they would have if the president had been a Republican.
So why should Republicans hold debates on these little watched, left-wing networks anyway? They know they will get stuck on absurd topics, like when ABC’s George Stephanopoulos obsessed over birth control during a 2012 primary debate. Heading into 2016, the media will be firmly against the Republican candidate and either outright or “quietly” supportive of Hillary Clinton, assuming she runs. Like their obsession with Obama’s race, the media will fixate on Hillary Clinton’s gender, investigate every attack as sexism, and outright refuse to cover Hillary’s negative past. The movies are only the tip of what we will see.
