In 2011 and 2012, television viewers were given the opportunity to watch over a dozen GOP presidential hopefuls in over 20 debates.
But in the 2016 election season, TV viewers may be seeing a lot less of the candidates and the debates. That’s because the Republican National Committee voted unanimously last Friday to pull their partnership with CNN and NBC due to networks’ planned films focusing on Hillary Rodham Clinton.
“Our party has to quit availing itself to biased moderators and companies that put on television in this case documentaries and miniseries that we all know is gearing up to run for president and that’s Hillary Clinton,” RNC Chairman Reince Priebus told CNN’s Candy Crowley last week.Â
Kathleen Hall Jamieson explains the decision and how it could effect the upcoming presidential election. Jamieson is the Director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.