This is fascinating, because after my first kneejerk hah-hah over the RNC demand, the more I thought about it, the more I agreed. Imagine the news cycle dominated for weeks by Republicans on offense and networks on defense (because you know what happens when conservatives work the ref). And then there's the issue of whether it's appropriate. After all, we'd scream just as hard over a Chris Christie biopic, right?
I wondered if anyone on our side would see the strategic value of agreeing with the Republicans on this, and someone did: David Brock of Media Matters!
In an unexpected bipartisan alliance, the liberal watchdog Media Matters For America is planning to back the Republican National Committee's campaign to pressure NBC and CNN into canceling their respective Hillary Clinton film projects, POLITICO has learned.
On Tuesday evening, Media Matters founder and longtime Clinton ally David Brock will send letters to the leadership at NBC Entertainment and CNN International expressing support for RNC chairman Reince Priebus and his pledge to pull the two networks' rights to moderate or sponsor Republican primary debates unless they pull their film projects.
Brock's motive is different from Priebus's, of course. In addition to heading MMFA, Brock is the chairman of American Bridge super PAC, which recently launched an effort called "Correct the Record" to protect Clinton and other Democrats from "Republican smears." In his letters to NBC and CNN, Brock suggests that the "right-wing noise machine" is already pressuring those networks "to adopt its ideological lens on Clinton."
"Given that this project could coincide with a potential Clinton campaign, the timing raises too many questions about fairness and conflicts of interest ahead of the 2016 election," Brock writes in letters to both NBC Entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt and CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker, which were obtained by POLITICO.
NBC Entertainment has announced plans to produce a mini-series about Hillary Clinton starring Diane Lane, while CNN has announced plans to produce a feature-length documentary about Clinton that will air in theaters and on the network. Both networks have stressed that their news divisions will have no part in the projects.
