The leader of the Republican Party is not pleased that CNN and NBC are both planning programs about the life of Hillary Clinton and has threatened to ban the two networks from airing any of the 2016 Republican primary debates if the networks don't immediately cancel the upcoming programs, according to Fox News.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus has sent letters to the two networks saying that they have until Aug. 14 to cancel the shows or the party will vote to forbid them from sponsoring any of the Republican primary debates, according to USA Today.
CNN had been planning a documentary on the former Secretary of State while NBC was planning a four episode miniseries with Diane Lane playing the role of Clinton, according to the Huffington Post.
"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," Priebus said in a statement. "Their actions to promote Secretary Clinton are disturbing and disappointing."
The RNC chairman said that NBC has already damaged its credibility because of biased news coverage on MSNBC. Priebus also said that NBC was suspect because executives at Comcast, which owns NBC, had donated to Democrats and Clinton in the past, according to the Huffington Post.
"Secretary Clinton has been in the public eye for well over two decades, so you certainly cannot claim that a documentary about her political career is any sort of public service of eye-opening journalism on an unknown individual," Priebus said. "Quite the opposite is true: it would be most accurately described as an in-kind donation."
In his letter to NBC (which can be read in its entirety here) Priebus recognizes that the First Amendment allows NBC to create whatever programs that they choose but that their actions are still disconcerting.
"As an American company, you have every right to air programming of your choice," Priebus wrote. "But as American citizens, certainly you recognize why many are astounded at your actions, which appear to be a major network's thinly-veiled attempt at putting a thumb on the scales of the 2016 presidential elections."
