Fox News is causing a stir after releasing controversial rules on how footage of its upcoming GOP debate can be handled by outside sources. According to a document released on Thursday, clips of the debate can not be over three minutes long, and more problematically, are completely disallowed after seven days.
Justifiably, that had many Republicans seeing red, wondering what in the world Fox News was even trying to do.
As my friend Chris Stigall (insert shameless plug for his show) notes, this doesn’t make any sense. Typically, political debates are treated as matters of public interest, with no limitations on how they can be covered. While Fox News is hosting the debate, there should be no expectation that they can shut down others analyzing the debate by completely disallowing the use of clips after seven days. As far as I’m aware, that’s not a rule that’s ever been proposed regarding any other political debate, no matter what network owns the rights to the broadcast.
For example, this would completely shut down outlets that live stream political debates and analyze them in real time. It would also make it difficult for outlets, including those such as RedState, to share the more intense exchanges that last more than three minutes as candidates bounce back and forth off one another. Worse, after seven days, we would apparently not be able to cover the debate at all. What happens then? Do we start getting copyright claims for having stories still live with clips of the debate? It’s a concerning situation.
This is self-defeating for Fox News anyway. No doubt, millions will watch the debate, so what does the network have to gain by limiting access to its broadcast in the aftermath? Once it’s over, it’s over, and one of the ways to increase exposure is for clips to go viral over the following weeks. Fox News is wanting to treat this debate like an NFL broadcast, presumably making copyright claims on broadcast and social media clips to get them taken down. But wouldn’t that just anger more people and turn them away from Fox News? I don’t understand the strategy of even implanting this into the public square.
It’s also an open question of whether such restrictions are even enforceable. These are supposed to be Republican debates, sponsored by the Republican National Convention, a political entity. Did Chairwomen Ronna McDaniel sign off on Fox News throttling the reach of the debate? If not, then is she going to step in and attempt to correct this issue? These are questions she needs to be facing immediately, especially given how embattled the RNC has been as a whole over the last few years.
Regardless, those who should be the most upset by this are the candidates who show up. In past cycles, primary debates have made a huge difference in juicing support and fundraising for those running. One of the ways that happen is by having broad exposure following the debate’s conclusion. Fox News is robbing them of that with its rule that no clips of the debate can be shared after seven days.
We’ll see what happens from here. If Fox News only meant for these rules to apply to its direct television competitors (MSNBC, CNN, and the broadcast news networks), then it should clarify that point so that other right-leaning outlets aren’t left in fear of legal action.