Major Networks Not Airing Obama's Immigration Speech

[TomCADem]

Source: Huffington Post

Despite the great significance of Barack Obama's planned executive action on immigration reform, the four major television broadcast networks are not planning to cover the president's Thursday night address where he is expected to announce his plan.

ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX have all indicated they won't break their planned programming to cover Obama's 8 p.m. ET speech. CNN's Brian Stelter first reported that ABC, NBC and CBS were opting out, and an official with FOX confirmed the same with The Hill.

CNN, MSNBC, FOX News and other cable news networks were expected to air the speech, as was PBS.

But the networks that cater to an audience who will be very interested in what the president has to say cleared the time for the address, CNN reported. The vice president of Univision, the nation's leading Spanish-language network, announced plans to interrupt its airing of the Latin Grammy Awards for the president's address. Telemundo, the other big Spanish-language network in the U.S. will also show the speech live. And the White House is expected to stream the event online.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/19/networks-obama-immigration-speech_n_6188952.html

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Of course, the networks will cover Republicans when they threaten to impeach the President in response to his effort to address the immigration crisis that they simultaneously insist he is not doing enough to fix, but is also overstepping his authority in doing so.

[Old Codger]

1. the MSM

Is fast making themselves irrelevant

[Skeowes28]

2. Good idea

Helps prevent blowback

[Voice for Peace]

3. The Spanish speaking voters and their friends and relatives will be listening

to this valiente presidente.

[Journeyman]

4. Why not do it at 7:30 EST, then re-play it at that same hour in all the other time zones? . . .

What's so magical about the 8 o'clock hour? And why must it play simultaneously across the nation? It's not like it's a declaration of war, or something that would suffer from any "spoilers" that leaked before it played in the next time zone. And this way, everyone would have an opportunity to view it after dinner, before the network programs begin, and no one would be put out because of "something stupid that the President had to share" during their show.

Not everyone is interested in watching anything other than entertainment at certain times of the day. A lot of people won't watch because they'd rather read it later, when they can also peruse any reasoned analysis that had been made overnight. And some people just don't like watching speeches.

Those who want to watch it, or desire to read about it later, will certainly find a way. Why not make it as accommodating as possible, so the networks will find it far more difficult to deny coverage.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

9. "It's not like it's a declaration of war"

It is for Republicans.

[DFW]

5. Airing it live could mean people would get what Obama wants to say

This way, they have the time to edit portions out of context, and make his speech say anything they want it to say.

[imthevicar]

6. Doesn't this constitute a

Failure to act in the public interest, and violate the FCC licensing rules, IOW can the FCC now pull the broadcasters License?

[Demit]

11. "White House officials decided against formally requesting

that the major networks carry the address after getting the impression that they would be hesitant to do so..." says the piece at the link.

So the prez gave them an out.

[LiberalElite]

12. see, THIS is my problem with this guy -

He's too nice!

[Demit]

14. He might be thinking it benefits him, too.

There's a large proportion of the country that squawks about the illegal furriners, and how he's an emperor, so not appearing on the broadcast channels low-keys it. I think his main objective is to get the thing done.

[Lurks Often]

16. It's usually a mistake to get into a pissing contest with the MSM

While the President could have been more insistent, the 4 networks could still have said no, which could be viewed as a loss of political "face" by the President.

Attempting to "order" the 4 networks to broadcast the speech is questionable in it's legality and even if they chose not to fight it out, having all 4 networks actively angry at the President isn't a smart decision.

[SoapBox]

7. Such bullshit.

The big 3 in Los Angeles, simply air local news at 5PM Pacific...nothing to miss there.

[mimi85]

13. Seriously!

I can't believe people would rather watch another high-speed chase than the President. It's ridiculous!

[Spitfire of ATJ]

8. That way they can say what he said in their own words.

[progressoid]

10. More fun from our "liberal" media.

[marble falls]

15. Freaking liberal press! The Teapublicans must not have a rebuttal prepared. Sure wouldn't want....

to miss 'Grey's Anatomy' or something else really important.

The next acquaintance of mine who says 'liberal press' gets an earful.

[Fred Sanders]

18. They carried TWO Republican rebuttals once, remember that?

[marble falls]

19. The night that the Rep from Florida got cotton mouth? He got backed up by Rand Paul.

[Fred Sanders]

17. Some Imperial Empire Overlord Obama is, can not even get the networks to cover his speech.

[marble falls]

20. I am going to use that all day long today, nice way of putting it!

[valerief]

21. What a fucking wasteland TV is. nt

[olegramps]

22. Doesn't this actually reflect the fact that most viewers would complain if they cut their programs.

This reflects the miserable state of the nation when the majority of its citizens can't be bothered to vote. I can guarantee that the major stations would be inundated with complaints if they didn't broadcast the crap that people gobble up.

[gregcrawford]

23. Not surprising...

... The Big 3 networks are all run by Neocon corporatists who would gut their grannies from groin to gizzard for a goddamned dollar. They slant every news report on national politics to the Right, and undercut Obama every chance they get. Just watch that incompetent fool, Chuck Todd on MTP, if you can stomach it. And then there's that nest of venomous sociopaths at Pox News. THAT'S where Todd belongs, right next to Hannity and Krauthammer.