Networks won't air presidential address because they consider it too 'political'

[eridani]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/11/20/1346220/-Networks-won-t-air-presidential-address-because-they-consider-it-too-political

Tomorrow Republicans everywhere will be freaking out (more so, that is) and telling you that the end of our democracy is nigh (for real, this time), but the general public won't have seen the thing they're freaking out about.

Eight years ago, President George W. Bush delivered a prime time address on immigration, carried by all the big broadcast networks.

On Thursday, President Barack Obama will do the same thing, but three of the broadcasters, ABC, NBC, and CBS have signaled that they won't be carrying it.

It's not that changes in immigration policies that may affect a few million people isn't news, then, since it was news in the Before Times. It's just that this time around it's just so "political."

Mike Allen reports in Playbook on Thursday morning that part of the reason the networks didn't want to air the address was because of its perceived political nature:

“There was agreement among the broadcast networks that this was overtly political. The White House has tried to make a comparison to a time that all the networks carried President Bush in prime time, also related to immigration [2006]. But that was a bipartisan announcement, and this is an overtly political move by the White House.”

And so our national press trundles on. The president's actions on immigration are political because the Republicans have shouted very loudly that they are political, thus rendering the president's statements on those actions themselves political, compared to the same actions and speeches by other presidents, and we didn't become guardians of the nation's discourse in order to cover politics. That's public radio crap.

[otohara]

1. Oh BS - It's Ratings Period

all those network execs have maids, cooks, nannies, lawn care workers who all have funny last names. They know damn well who picks, pulls, packs our food, then prepares it for their parties and favorite restaurants. They are thrilled they won't be losing their laborers. It was all about ratings and $$$$$$.

Mike Allen is a fucking idiot.