"This miniseries is a total nightmare for NBC."
In case you missed it, NBC is planning to produce a miniseries about Hillary Clinton before the 2016 election cycle, essentially acting as a Super PAC for the potential Democratic nominee. NBC's decision to produce the miniseries has sparked outrage from the RNC and surprisingly, Media Matters. Chuck Todd tried to head off the controversy nearly a month ago when the miniseries announcement was made:
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Just want to get this out of the way now: NBC News has nothing to do w/Clinton mini series on NBC entertainment. So save your complaints
— Chuck Todd (@chucktodd) July 27, 2013
But as Ed Morrissey points out, Todd's claim on MSNBC this morning that there is a "firewall" between the news side of NBC and the entertainment side of NBC just doesn't add up.
The giant firewall to which Todd refers has enough open doorways to allow news anchor Brian Williams to make plenty of humorous cameos on 30 Rock for the Entertainment division’s benefit, and the Today show certainly straddles that firewall on a regular basis, too. MSNBC isn’t exactly a hard-news effort, for that matter, as the channel’s management readily admits. NBC will spend millions airing this miniseries, probably just on Diane Lane’s salary alone, and that speaks to a certain organizational commitment that talk of “giant firewalls” just can’t erase.
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