(Reuters) – Two television projects focused on Hillary Clinton got the axe yesterday after the programmes became embroiled in partisan wrangling, including threats by the Republican National Committee (RNC) to boycott presidential debates sponsored by CNN and NBC.
The filmmaker for CNN said he could not complete the project because he’d received no cooperation from either Democrats or Republicans, while industry sources said NBC’s move had nothing to do with the RNC, the Clintons or NBC News, which is run separately from NBC’s entertainment unit.
Charles Ferguson, the filmmaker responsible for the CNN documentary, wrote a scathing online essay, saying that the Democrat’s camp froze him out and that Republicans had grumbled about meddling in the 2016 presidential race.
A CNN spokeswoman yesterday confirmed the film would be cancelled and said the decision was made by the filmmaker.
NBC, whose entertainment unit had been planning a dramatic four-hour miniseries starring Diane Lane as Clinton, said it was also abandoning the TV movie yesterday.
“After reviewing and prioritizing our slate of movie/mini-series development, we’ve decided that we will no longer continue developing the Hillary Clinton mini-series,” an NBC spokesman said in a statement.
The mini-series had already lost a production partner when Fox Television Studios passed on working with NBC in August.
