NBC's planned Hillary Clinton miniseries continues to be a headache for the network's news division.
On Thursday, NBC News political director Chuck Todd, host Joe Scarborough and the Morning Joe crew held a self-aware chat on the network's early program where they lamented how decisions made by their corporate sibling could help fuel perceptions of bias.
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"This is why this miniseries is a total nightmare for NBC News," Todd explained. "We know there's this giant firewall [between the news and entertainment division], we have nothing to do with it, we know that we'd love probably to be as critical or whatever it is going to be if it comes out, but there's nothing we can do about it and we're going to only own the negative."
At a TCA event in late July, NBC Entertainment president Bob Greenblatt unveiled plans for a four-hour Hillary Clinton miniseries, starring Diane Liane. The series, the network has since noted, has "not been written nor has it been ordered to production," but has drawn bipartisan fire. Republican National Committee chairman Reince Preibus has called for the network to cancel the series or face a debate boycott in the next election cycle.
On Morning Joe, Todd explained that the miniseries could put NBC News in a no-win position, with both the GOP charging that the series is a "glorification" of the former Secretary of State and the Clinton camp being "upset it's too tough on them."
Scarborough summed up the potential fallout for the news and entertainment divisions this way: "You get the negative and they get the cash."
