CNN Abandons Hillary Clinton Doc

After all the fight and fuss CNN put up to defend its decision to produce and broadcast a feature-length documentary about likely 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, CNN has now abandoned the project. The director of the project, left-wing filmmaker Charles Ferguson, who says he was approached by CNN, puts most of the blame on Team Clinton’s lack of cooperation:

And then the fun began. The day after the contract was signed, I received a message from Nick Merrill, Hillary Clinton’s press secretary. He already knew about the film, and clearly had a source within CNN. He interrogated me; at first I answered, but eventually I stopped. When I requested an off-the-record, private conversation with Mrs. Clinton, Merrill replied that she was busy writing her book, and not speaking to the media.

On top of that, the Republican National Committee wisely decided that a network willing to invest so much into a single candidate should not be allowed to host the 2016 GOP primary debates. Even the left-wing Media Matters lashed out at CNN for opening themselves up to this criticism. In the end, this blowback made it even harder for Ferguson to get any cooperation from Republicans or Democrats. So he gave up:

After painful reflection, I decided that I couldn’t make a film of which I would be proud. And so I’m cancelling. (Not because of any pressure from CNN — quite the contrary.) It’s a victory for the Clintons, and for the money machines that both political parties have now become. But I don’t think that it’s a victory for the media, or for the American people.

Ferguson closes the piece with a sentence that blows up the notion CNN was selling: that the Clinton documentary would be objective:

I still believe that Mrs. Clinton has many virtues including great intelligence, fortitude, and a deep commitment to bettering the lives of women and children worldwide. But this is not her finest hour.

Ferguson is a left-winger who obviously admires Hillary Clinton and who was approached by CNN to make a feature documentary about her.

CNN presents itself as an objective news outlet.

 

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC