The Republican National Committee has followed through with their, what some could have thought to be, idle threats of boycotting broadcast outlets NBC and CNN should they air a documentary focused on the life and work of supposed 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Last Friday, a resolution to boycott the channels was approved at a GOP meeting in Boston. According to the resolution, if the networks air the documentary, “the Republican National Committee will neither partner with these networks in the 2016 presidential primary debates nor sanction any primary debates they sponsor.”
Chairman of the RNC, Reince Priebus, went on a tirade of rhetoric saying that the RNC is “done putting up with this nonsense. There are plenty of other outlets. We’ll still reach voters, maybe more voters. But CNN and NBC anchors will just have to watch on their competitor’s networks.” However, there a couple of things to consider when thinking about the threats and boycott of these news networks by the RNC.
First, the 2016 presidential race isn’t for another three years. That is more than plenty of time for the RNC to realize the idiotic nature of their little boycott against two of the largest news networks on TV and renege on their move. But if they follow through and pull out broadcasting of the Republican primaries from those networks, they will lose out on mass audiences.
Fox News would pick up the debates, obviously, but the name of the game is to win voters for the White House overall. So, they’re preaching to the choir by keeping broadcasts on Fox News. And MSNBC would broadcast the Republican primary debates just to make fun of it later.
By doing this, the Republicans are only keeping themselves from reaching potential voters. The RNC’s boycott is nothing more than a kicking and screaming fit, like a child who has to wait its turn for the XBox controller.
Josh is a writer and researcher with Ring of Fire. Follow him on Twitter @dnJdeli.