Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said Friday that he wants the RNC to entirely take over its party’s presidential primary debates, which would greatly reduce the news media’s role in the process and would mean a big hit to their ability to profit from the debates.
In a discussion with Politico, Priebus noted that the RNC had exerted greater influence over the GOP primary, in part by having more of a say over who gets to moderate them. He said that influence will grow in the future, particularly when it comes to debates.
“Now, what’s going to happen is four or eight years from now, the party’s going to have even more control,” he said. “I’d actually like to see one day, if it’s possible … for the party to actually own the rights of the nomination process. One day that’s going to happen. Both parties are going to own the rights …”
He suggested that TV news outlets, which usually produce the debates and own the rights to them, are making too much of a profit off of them, and that the RNC should act as the gatekeeper to debates, possibly charging a fee for any outlet that would access them.
“Should media outlets be making tens of millions of dollars on a product that the party should own?” he said. “That’s the question. And I think both parties should get together to figure out what the answer to the question is.”
Priebus likened the idea to how the NFL owns their football games and sells the rights to TV networks that want to broadcast them.
As it stands now, the content of debates is owned by whichever TV outlet produces one. This primary election season, networks and cable news outlets set records in viewership with the debates, in large part due to Donald Trump’s participation in the GOP events. The high ratings translated into very lucrative advertisement sales.
Priebus indicated he didn’t have all the details worked out, but said it’s something that should be examined.
“I’m just saying, we’re at the beginning of a long process that I think the parties should explore,” said Priebus. “The nomination process I think should go to the benefit of both parties, not to the benefit of the media.”
