The Republican National Committee is barring NBC News from co-hosting a 2016 Republican presidential debate scheduled for Feb. 26, and explained in a statement Friday that it has serious concerns about the network’s ability to moderate the event in a fair manner.
“The RNC’s sole role in the primary debate process is to ensure that our candidates are given a full and fair opportunity to lay out their vision for America’s future. We simply cannot continue with NBC without full consultation with our campaigns,” Republican National Committee Reince Priebus said in a letter to NBC chairman Andrew Lack.
The RNC blackout applies to all of NBCUniversal’s media properties, including Telemundo, which was scheduled to co-host the Feb. 26 debate, and CNBC, which just hosted a debate Wednesday evening.
The Feb. 26 debate is still scheduled to take place with National Review participating in a moderating role. It just seems for now that it will also happen without NBC.
NBC responded to the announcement with a brief statement, saying, “This is a disappointing development. However, along with our debate broadcast partners at Telemundo we will work in good faith to resolve this matter with the Republican Party.”
The decision comes as a direct result of CNBC’s “horrible” handling of a primary debate this week that many critics have characterized as “awful” and dangerously biased. It also comes after rumors surfaced that irate GOP candidates were considering taking matters into their own hands as far as future debates were concerned.
“The CNBC network is one of your media properties, and its handling of the debate was conducted in bad faith. We understand that NBC does not exercise full editorial control over CNBC’s journalistic approach. However, the network is an arm of your organization, and we need to ensure there is not a repeat performance,” Priebus wrote.
Andrew Lack does not oversee CNBC. Both groups operate independently of one another, though reporters and pundits from the two NBCUniversal-owned networks regularly swap in and out of each other’s shows either to co-host or comment on the news of the day.
Priebus’ letter continued, building his case against the media giant’s handling of Wednesday’s showdown between the GOP candidates, “CNBC billed the debate as one that would focus on ‘the key issues that matter to all voters—job growth, taxes, technology, retirement and the health of our national economy.’ That was not the case. Before the debate, the candidates were promised an opening question on economic or financial matters. That was not the case.”
“Candidates were promised that speaking time would be carefully monitored to ensure fairness. That was not the case. Questions were inaccurate or downright offensive. The first question directed to one of our candidates asked if he was running a comic book version of a presidential campaign, hardly in the spirit of how the debate was billed,” he added.
An example of the type of questions that riled GOP candidates and the RNC includes when CNBC’s John Harwood asked real estate mogul Donald Trump whether he was a “comic book” candidate.
“While debates are meant to include tough questions and contrast candidates’ visions and policies for the future of America, CNBC’s moderators engaged in a series of ‘gotcha’ questions, petty and mean-spirited in tone, and designed to embarrass our candidates. What took place Wednesday night was not an attempt to give the American people a greater understanding of our candidates’ policies and ideas,” Priebus wrote.
“I have tremendous respect for the First Amendment and freedom of the press. However, I also expect the media to host a substantive debate on consequential issues important to Americans. CNBC did not,” he added. “While we are suspending our partnership with NBC News and its properties, we still fully intend to have a debate on that day, and will ensure that National Review remains part of it.”
If RNC leadership decides after further consideration to continue on without NBC over fears the network is too partisan, it wouldn’t be the first time that something like this has happened during a presidential election cycle.
In 2007, several Fox News-backed Democratic primary debates were cancelled after left-wing bloggers complained that the cable news network was too biased in favor of conservatives. One such debate, which was supposed to be held in Detroit, couldn’t even get the Democratic National Committee’s “formal stamp of approval.”
Then-DNC Chairman Howard Dean said at the time that Fox is “a propaganda outlet of the Republican Party.”
