CNN Films Cancels Hillary Clinton Documentary Amid Controversy
CNN Films has cancelled its planned Hillary Clinton documentary. The director Charles Ferguson (“No End in Sight” and “Inside Job”), who had been hired to direct a documentary for the network about the former Secretary of State, said in a blog post today on The Huffington Post that he is stepping away from the documentary about Hillary Clinton and that CNN is no longer proceeding with the film.
Though he said that he received tremendous support from CNN, Ferguson explained that the political pressure from both sides of the aisle made it so that he could not make a film of which he would be proud of. Almost immediately after the documentary was announced in August, the Republican National Committee resolved to not partner with CNN for any of the 2016 presidential primary debates. In that same resolution the RNC reasoned that due to Hillary Clinton’s likely run for President in 2016, the documentary would be little more than extended commercials promoting Clinton.
Ferguson wrote:
When I approached people for interviews, I discovered that nobody,
and I mean nobody, was interested in helping me make this film. Not
Democrats, not Republicans — and certainly nobody who works with the
Clintons, wants access to the Clintons, or dreams of a position in a
Hillary Clinton administration. Not even journalists who want access,
which can easily be taken away. I even sensed potential difficulty in
licensing archival footage from CBN (Pat Robertson) and from Fox. After
approaching well over a hundred people, only two persons who had ever
dealt with Mrs. Clinton would agree to an on-camera interview, and I
suspected that even they would back out.
CNN confirmed that the project will not move forward. “Charles Ferguson has informed us that he is not moving forward with
his documentary about Hillary Clinton,” CNN Worldwide spokesperson
Allison Gollust told Politico. “Charles is an Academy Award winning
director who CNN Films was excited to be working with, but we understand
and respect his decision. [W]e won’t seek other partners and are not proceeding with the film.”
