CNN's Hillary Clinton film scrapped as director blames lack of co-operation

[Eugene]

Source: CNN

CNN's Hillary Clinton film scrapped as director blames lack of co-operation

Josh Halliday
theguardian.com, Monday 30 September 2013 13.51 BST

The Oscar-winning film director Charles Ferguson has cancelled his CNN documentary on Hillary Clinton after what he described as a private campaign against the film by prominent Democrats.

Ferguson said he had decided to pull the plug after being met with a wall of silence from more than a hundred people who refused to be interviewed for the documentary.

He claimed that aides to the former secretary of state put pressure on CNN behind the scenes, and made clear that Clinton would only co-operate "over my dead body". He also blamed a public campaign by Republicans, who claimed the film would be biased in favour of Clinton.

"Neither political party wanted the film made," said Ferguson in an article for the Huffington Post. "After painful reflection, I decided that I couldn't make a film of which I would be proud. And so I'm cancelling."

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/sep/30/cnn-hillary-clinton-film-scrapped-producer

[bunnies]

1. Whoa.

[HappyMe]

2. I guess if Clinton won't co-operate,

and others didn't want to be interviewed.....

[leftyohiolib]

3. more both sides do it

[karynnj]

4. I don't blame the Clintons for not cooperating

Her story - like the story of any person who has risen to the level of being a serious candidate for a nomination is complex and complicated. Only someone who never strives for big goals has a life that is a succession of victories. Clinton obviously wants to be in control of her own narrative.

She can frames loses as learning experiences and highlight the good parts of these failures. She also has a tough job in NOT having Bill Clinton become the focus of a very large part of the story. He is after all the extravagantly exuberant person who people who loved him and people who hated him agreed sucked up all the air around him.

A large part of a Presidential run is creating the candidate's narrative - that never shows the full picture of who the candidate is - but creates a simple story that people can easily absorb. I would guess that Hillary Clinton will want to use her work on international women's rights and children's rights - that echo things she did as First Lady and even her early (pre Bill) job with the Children's Defense Fund. This fits nicely with the goal of many to have a woman President. What better than one with a history for working for women's issues -- which - of course - are really EVERYONE's issues.

If there is a documentary - especially one made by a serious person, it would show the more complicated person and even if mostly positive (which I suspect it would be) - there will be things an opponent will use. In the primaries or the general election. (Consider that the Republicans even used parts of Tour of Duty against Kerry - even though the biographer was immensely impressed with Kerry as a person. )