NBC has delayed airing a new documentary about Trump's child-separation policy, described by MSNBC's Chris Hayes as "absolutely urgent," until December, despite its importance for public interest. The reason behind the delay appears to be concerns that airing it earlier could hurt Trump's feelings, thereby making him unlikely to do an MSNBC debate. This decision has been criticized as prioritizing Trump's sensitivities over informing the public on a significant and painful policy issue.
Choosing not to release information is election interference itself. That's intentionally keeping voters uninformed about material facts about a candidate.
I generally agree with your PS, though, I'm not sure I'm thrilled with the idea that independent news organizations should be making decisions based on fears of election interference. Unlike the possible accusations of conflict of interests for government agencies or institutions, the role of the media (ostensibly and historically) has been, and continues to be, to ensure transparency, accountability, and public participation in governance.
"Interfering" with elections through informational reporting seems to be a primary role of the news. Though, perhaps the fact that's it's a documentary changes the calculus. In some sense, this seems to be more fundamentally about the interests of the ownership of MSNBC and fears of retribution if it's released prior to the election, but I don't think Trump is going to be particularly discerning in his retribution one way or the other.
Their unequal treatment of Dem and GOP just proves they are no longer a news organization, just a propaganda machine.
It doesn't prove that at all, and frankly it's not true. They are part of a for-profit corporation. Their decisions are based on making money for shareholders, and not about journalism or informing the public. So if upsetting Trump, and his supporters, would cost them money, then they will withhold the information. Profit Über alles!
Every day it seems like these media companies might only care about their own profits, and the richest people who own the most shares... That are among the 5% of Americans who get tax breaks with Trump's upcoming policies.
I hope someday they all get thrust back into poverty and the world shits on them as they have shit on the world.
This appears to be overstated. The "offend Donald Trump" comment comes from Oliver Darcy, who left CNN in August 2024 to focus full time on his email newsletter and website, Status, which focuses on news about the media industry.
It's Oliver Darcy's reporting based on conversations with multiple individuals at various levels of the corporation. This isn't something Darcy inferred on their own, they're reporting out on conversations they've had with individuals at the company.
Darcy reported that Rebecca Blumenstein, president of editorial for NBC News, opposed airing “Separated” before the election because executives want Trump to agree to another presidential debate hosted by the network.
However, Stephen Labaton, NBCUniversal head of communications, maintained to Darcy that “the debate had nothing to do with the scheduling of this programming.”
This story is making the rounds on a number of different outlets, and they all depend wholly on this one guy saying that Blumenstein said something, while Labaton said something different to that same guy. There's a single person as a source here, the story is overstated.
Edit: Oh, I see - the headline on the article doesn't match the title of this post. "...due to worries it will hurt Trump's feelings" - was that your editorializing, or did they change the headline?