Earlier today, news broke that the first joint candidate appearance of 2016 will be hosted by NBC’s Matt Lauer. He is a big name in media, after all, so it makes sense his name would be at the top of the list.
Speaking of big names on lists, guess where else Lauer’s name has been? Mediaite reminds us:
NBC’s Matt Lauer, who NBC Universal recently announced wouldmoderate the upcoming Commander-in-Chief Forum with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, was once listed as a “notable member” of the Clinton Global Initiative, the leadership arm of the Clinton Foundation.
The page on the Clinton Foundation website that listed several other prominent journalists as members as well has since been deleted. But Mediaite screencapped the page when it was first reported on back in 2015.
Now, keep in mind that the RNC promised to exert more control over the debates this year. If they had any say in this whatsoever, then someone at the RNC should have said “Um, hey guys? This dude’s name was on a list of Clinton supporters or something.” Because we’ve known about this for a while.
I mean, there’s more Clinton supporters in the modern media today than you can shake a stick at, but it’s still worth noting just how much support Lauer is even perceived to be giving.
If the RNC had any sense about it at all, it would have seen this, said “Hahahaha nope” and moved on. Trump likes having events at the same as television appearances, and any network would have been glad to give him some air time. But the RNC isn’t going to do that. They’re going to let this little show happen.
It’s not the first (or even the biggest) problem they’ve let themselves get into this year, but it is the most recent big problem they’re making for themselves. At this point, however, I’m pretty eager to see the entire institution burned to the ground (metaphorically), so I’ll allow it. Maybe Trump will even get some positive coverage on this.
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