NBC’s Hillary Clinton Conflict Of Interest

Network’s Clinton Miniseries Timed To Coincide With 2016 Election.

NBC Entertainment’s plans to produce and air a miniseries about Hillary Clinton just ahead of the 2016 presidential election raises serious questions about NBC News coverage of the former U.S. Senator and secretary of state and whether it will be slanted or tainted by the parent company’s commercial interests.

On July 27, NBC Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt announced plans for a Clinton-based miniseries timed to precede the 2016 presidential race as part of a new NBC effort “to create ‘event’ programming that will draw viewers to the shrinking world of broadcast network TV.”

NBC’s chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd acknowledged the complication this will create in a series of posts on his Twitter account, surmising that “Clinton lovers or haters will assume some sort of NBC News involvement” and assuring his followers that NBC News “has nothing to do” with the miniseries.

NBC News, via Todd, appears to be publicly quarantining itself from NBC Entertainment, though the network itself has yet to address the thorny ethical issues raised by the close nexus between NBC News and NBC Entertainment and the financial interests at stake in NBC producing a miniseries connected to Clinton’s potential political future. It remains to be seen whether American media consumers will accept the distinction and whether NBC’s reputation for objective journalism will be tarnished by NBC’s pursuit of ratings gold.

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