Thread: TV networks denied Obama’s request for Obamacare celebration time

TV networks denied Obama’s request for Obamacare celebration time

6:46 PM 04/03/2014
Sarah Hurtubise
The White House tried to get primetime air for President Obama to celebrate Obamacare enrollment figures, only to be denied by several television networks.

White House officials wanted to announce that Obamacare had met its minimum threshold of success with a victory lap akin to Obama’s late-night announcement in 2011 when U.S. Special Forces killed 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden, BuzzFeed reports.

Three sources familiar with the request told BuzzFeed that the White House had requested the primetime slot in order to push the idea of the health-care law’s success while it continues to languish in the polls.

It’s not clear which networks refused the request, but no speech was shown on any of the major broadcast television networks. Typically, the State of the Union is the only presidential speech awarded network television’s primetime spot, although special addresses sometimes make the cut.

The White House has not commented on the report.

After being written off by the networks, the president settled for a Rose Garden address instead.

“The debate over repealing this law is over,” Obama proclaimed in the speech, “The Affordable are Act is here to stay.”

“Why are folks working so hard for people not to have health insurance?

Why are they so mad about the idea of folks having health insurance?” the president asked. “In the end, history is not kind to those who would deny Americans their basic economic security. “Nobody remembers well those who stand in the way of America’s progress or our people.”

Insurance industry analysts have estimated that fewer than one-third of those who selected health plans on the exchanges were previously uninsured; this group is also over 30 percent less likely to end up paying their first premiums than those who already had health insurance before signing up for Obamacare.

http://dailycaller.com/2014/04/03/tv...ebration-time/

April 4, 2014
Obama asked for free April Fool's Day prime time network slot to celebrate ObamaCare enrollment

Thomas Lifson

Conflating the announcement of the questionable numbers offered up as “enrollment” statistics for Obamacare with a message of grave national concern, the Obama administration asked the three broadcast networks for free prime time for an address to the nation. The networks, whether out of greed (they would have lost revenues from commercials) or good sense, turned him down flat.
Buzzfeed broke the story:

…network officials refused to make the kind of accommodation they did previously for the announcement that Osama Bin Laden had been killed, for instance, and Obama was left instead cutting into the much smaller audiences ofEllen and other daytime shows.
Three sources familiar with the request confirmed the White House asked for the primetime slot in their effort both to emphasize a bright moment following the challenging roll out and, more important, to try to reintroduce the country to a law that remains unpopular. One top White House official referred BuzzFeed to another top official for comment on the conversation with networks, but the second official did not respond to a request for comment.

So the propaganda effort was instead diverted into a daytime speech in the Rose Garden before a hastily-assembled cheering crowd, featuring Joe Biden as comic relief.

It must have either desperation or arrogance – likely both, come to think of it – that led Valerie Jarrett the president to think that his spiking the ball rated commandeering the airwaves in the same manner as a declaration of war or a response to a terror attack. The swift rebuke shows how out of touch this crowd really is.




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He wanted free time to lie....hmmmm no honor among thieves it appears