Make of this what you will: CNN says the Barack Obama campaign tried to purchase airtime tomorrow night on the network to run its 30-minute primetime ad. The news network says it rejected the request.
From a CNN spokesperson:
We were approached by the Obama campaign and declined their request. We did not want to pre-empt our programming lineup with a 30-minute spot. We rather use our air to continue to cover the campaign, candidates and issues like we always do from all points of view with the best political team on television.
Fox News, sources say, was not approached by the Obama campaign. Sources point out that the ad is already airing on the Fox broadcast network. MSNBC, however, is airing the ad despite it running on its broadcast partner NBC.
Both news networks say they plan to cover the ad as part of their usual nightly news programming.
"CNN will cover it as a news story just like we do with all the other campaign ads," the statement read.
The Obama ad was first reported by the Live Feed. Yesterday the blog broke that ABC would not air the ad along with broadcasters CBS, NBC and Fox.
Unlike the news networks, ABC's reasoning was more influenced by long-term programming goals -- executives were initially hesitant to air an ad that pre-empted struggling show "Pushing Daisies." The network eventually changed its mind, but by then the offer was off the table.
I don't want to send any business to CNN, so just tune your TV to your local ABC affiliate at 8pm local time (7pm Central) even if you don't want to watch it. I'd love to see "Pushing Daisies" beat the infomercial's ratings.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment