Two TV news organizations say they are temporarily cutting ties to Donna Brazile now that she’s been named interim chair of the Democratic National Committee.
Only they aren’t cutting them entirely. And that could lead to some rather awkward exchanges.
On the eve of the Democratic National Convention, CNN and ABC News said they had temporarily suspended contracts with Brazile to serve as a political commentator for the networks. Brazile, who served as Democrat Al Gore’s campaign manager in 2000, has been a fixture on both networks for years.
She was named to the DNC post on Sunday and will begin work after the convention concludes on Thursday. She will continue in the job until the election in November.
But neither ABC nor CNN is planning to keep Brazile off the air this week while she’s suspended from her network contracts.
Brazile will “appear on ABC as a newsmaker” during the convention, said ABC spokeswoman Heather Riley. A CNN source said Brazile “will keep all her on-air commitments to us this week.”
The difference, both networks said, is that she won’t be paid when she appears.
As a rule, news organizations tend to shy away from employing people who represent an interest the news organizations cover. The reason is that such conflicting roles may cause viewers or readers to suspect that the news organization’s coverage is biased in favor of that individual’s interests.
Brazile’s ascension to interim chair of the DNC, replacing Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., after the convention ends, would seem to present a classic conflict of interest.
In recent years, however, TV news organizations have made an exception to the conflict rules by employing armies of party “strategists” to comment on political developments. CNN, for example, drew criticism last month by hiring Corey Lewandowski, Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, as a commentator, despite a non-disparagement agreement between Lewandowski and the campaign.