n Mon, Sep 30, 2013 at 8:59 AM, Mark Jeffries <[email protected]> wrote:
> Director Charles Ferguson ("Inside Job") blogged on HuffPo that he has
> called off the documentary on Hillary Clinton that CNN had commissioned,
> citing inability to get on the record interviews and hostility from both
> Democrats and Republicans, both afraid of what the film might say about her
> (but with no pressure from CNN, he adds):
>
>
> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/charles-ferguson/hillary-clinton-documentary_b_4014792.html?utm_hp_ref=media
>
> Thewrap.com reports that CNN has agreed to call off the doc:
>
> http://www.thewrap.com/hillary-clinton-documentary-canceled-by-cnn-films/
>
I think this was a poorly conceived project from the start. While Ferguson,
and CNN and NBC, have the right to do things like this if they wish, that
does not make it a good idea. Maybe just after her husband left the WH, or
while she was Secretary of State, or after she has clearly retired from
public life. But to come out with a documentary like this on the eve of
what could easily be her presidential campaign is just bad timing. That is
a time to do good, real time journalism, not long form documentary.
I remember when Ronald Reagan was preparing to run for the 1980 nomination;
he had really polished his national reputation doing radio commentaries,
and there was a long feature about him on some news show (maybe 60 Minutes
or something like that), sometime in 1979 I think, that made me liberals
like me in California (who knew him from his reign of terror in Sacramento)
furious, as it seemed like it had been commissioned by his campaign to
burnish his image. But if it had focused more on his warts, it would have
infuriated a whole different segment of the population.
If CNN comes out with a long form documentary on the life of Julian Castro
in 2017, I will think it similarly poorly timed. If you are a news
organiztaion, and you think you have a lead on information that the public
needs to know about a potentially important political leader, then do your
research and report it.
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