Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chelsea Clinton will celebrate the women who inspired them in a new Apple TV Plus documentary series Gutsy, premiering September 9.

Based on the Clintons’ bestselling book The Book of Gutsy Women, the eight-part docuseries follows the former First Lady and her daughter as they speak to such pioneering women as Kim Kardashian, Megan Thee Stallion, Dr. Jane Goodall, Gloria Steinem, Wanda Sykes, Amy Schumer, Goldie Hawn and Kate Hudson, said the streaming service.

The series also showcases Hillary and Chelsea’s special mother-daughter bond and the unique, multi-generational way they approach the important and timely issues highlighted in each episode, said Apple TV Plus.

Gutsy is executive produced by the Clintons, along with Johnny Webb, Siobhan Sinnerton, Roma Khanna, Ken Druckerman, Banks Tarver, and Anna Chai. ■

The CW is in development on the script for The Woman’s Hour, an anthology drama from Hillary Rodham Clinton, Amblin Television and Warner Bros. Television. 

The first season will be based on Elaine Weiss’ book, The Woman’s Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote, and will shed light on the battle to ratify the 19th Amendment, the 100th anniversary of which was commemorated in August 2020. Each season will celebrate those who changed history, The CW said. 

Clinton and Weiss are executive producers with Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey of Amblin Television. Angelina Burnett is writer/executive producer/showrunner. 

Rights for the book were optioned by Amblin Television, whose chairman is Steven Spielberg, in 2018. 

History will examine the impeachment of President Bill Clinton in a new scripted series The Breach: Inside the Impeachment of Bill Clinton, the network said Thursday 

The six-part series, based on New York Times correspondent Peter Baker’s bestseller, The Breach: Inside the Impeachment and Trial of William Jefferson Clinton, will provide an intimate, riveting depiction of how one of the nation’s biggest political scandals unfolded – from the revelation that President Clinton was having an affair with Monica Lewinsky, through the political combat that saw Hillary Clinton, Newt Gingrich, Prosecutor Ken Starr, Congressman Bob Livingston and many others dominating the national headlines, according to History.

The limited series will be executive produced and directed by Emmy Award winner R.J. Cutler and produced by FremantleMedia North America. Casting is currently underway, according to History. Cutler's credits include being a producer of The War Room and he directed A Perfect Candidate and The World According to Dick Cheney, per History.

“Featuring an array of well-known modern political figures, The Breach will bring audiences behind the scenes of an event that changed Washington forever – the first impeachment of an elected president in American history,” according to Eli Lehrer, executive vice president of programming for History in a statement. “This drama builds upon our core scripted programming slate of compelling, contemporary storytelling that embraces our recent history and we are confident R.J. will bring a unique vision to President Clinton’s gripping story.”

Fox News Channel was the main source of news for 40% of the voters who put Donald Trump into the White House, while Hillary Clinton's supporters got their news from a number of outlets, with none of those getting more than 20%. Only 3% of Clinton supporters said Fox was their main source of news.

That's according to a new Pew Research Center survey, conducted Nov. 29-Dec. 12 among a representative sample of 4,183 adults.

The next most common main news source for voters who elected Trump was CNN, which the President-elect has attacked as fake news, though that network was cited by only 8%.

The full Trump voter breakdown was FNC, 40%; CNN, 8%; Facebook, 7%; NBC, 6%; Local TV, 5%; ABC, 3%; CBS, 3%; and local radio, 3%.

RELATED > Former Apprentice Contestant Sues Trump

CNN was the main source of news for Clinton voters, cited by 18% of respondents. MSNBC, Facebook, local television news, NPR, ABC, The New York Times and CBS were each cited by between 5% and 9% of those respondents as their main source.

The full Clinton voter breakdown was CNN, 18%; MSNBC, 9%; Facebook, 8%; local TV news, 8%; NPR, 7%; ABC, 6%; The New York Times, 5%; CBS, 5%; NBC, 4%; local newspapers, 4%; and FNC, 3%.

Across voters for both candidates, 19% said FNC was their main source, followed by CNN at 13% and Facebook at 9%, although Facebook does not produce its own news.

RELATED > Survey: Trump Should Dump Tweets

Prominent online sites that do produce news did not make much of a dent in the "main source" list.

Breitbart was named by only 1% of respondents as the main source of news, as was The Huffington Post. Buzzfeed was not named by a single member of the sample. Those sites were part of the larger news diet for some of those respondents.

The margin of error for the survey is plus or minus 2.7 percentage points, Pew said.

President-elect Donald Trump took aim at CNN late Monday (Nov. 28) and early Tuesday (Nov. 29) in a string of tweets claiming the news outlet was in the tank for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

"@CNN is so embarrassed by their total (100%) support of Hillary Clinton, and yet her loss in a landslide, that they don't know what to do," Trump said Monday night via a tweet, his preferred form of commentary.

He followed Tuesday morning with "I thought that @CNN would get better after they failed so badly in their support of Hillary Clinton however, since election, they are worse!"

Trump's comments followed CNN reports disputing his claims that millions of illegal votes had been cast in the election. The cable news network had reported that his fraud claims were not only unsubstantiated but simply untrue and posited that Trump may have gotten the "millions" figure from conspiracy theorists.

Facing various recount efforts in swing states, led by Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein and subsequently supported by the Clinton camp, Trump had tweeted: "Serious voter fraud in Virginia, New Hampshire and California - so why isn't the media reporting on this? Serious bias - big problem!"

Candidate Trump had been a long and strong critic of journalists, insulting them and accusing major media outlets of being part of a conspiracy to defeat him. President-elect Trump has also continued his media attacks, last week saying in response to reports on his administration's potential conflicts of interest: "Prior to the election it was well known that I have interests in properties all over the world. Only the crooked media makes this a big deal!

The voter fraud story, which has been reported by other media outlets including The Washington Post, has ramped up Trump's attacks. CNN has also launched a new ongoing segment focused on those potential conflicts of interest.

A CNN spokesperson had no comment on Trump's latest criticisms.

The media is still trying to figure out how they were so wrong about predicting Donald Trump’s historic election as president of the United States.

Much of the media had Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton easily ascending to the office of the presidency, only to eat crow when Trump shocked the world on Election Day.

But veteran TV journalist Dan Rather foresaw Trump’s potential ascension from real estate mogul and reality TV star to the most powerful position in the free world. In an interview I conducted with Rather this past January during the Television Critics Association Winter press tour before the first Republican primary vote for Trump was cast, the current host of AXS TV’s The Big Interview told me that Trump’s ability to take advantage of the media and his unconventional outreach to a segment of America virtually ignored by both the Republicans and the Democrats could lead him to the White House.  

Below is Rather’s fortuitous assessment of Trump’s political success: 

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton outspent Republican rival Donald Trump on local cable advertising by 9-to-1 in four key battleground states, but lost in part because her targeted ad strategy was overcome by his ability to generate earned media, according to Viamedia, an independent cable ad management company.

Republican candidates for state-wide and local races in presidential battleground markets tended to outspend their Democratic rivals, which represented a substantial number of distributors in Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania and Missouri, the company said.

Viamedia's political advertising revenue was up more than 50% from 2012, while many broadcast station owners have reported that their political ad sales were below forecasts, in part because Trump didn’t buy as much TV advertising as expected.

Nearly half -- 47% -- of all cable TV political ad spending came from issues advertisers such as PACs and other organizations.

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.

After a brief early downturn Wednesday, the day after Donald Trump’s upset victory over Hillary Clinton the Presidential election, stocks rallied on hopes of lower taxes and more favorable business regulations under the new regime.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished Nov. 9 up 256.95 points to 18,589.69, after a brief downturn earlier in the morning. Investors apparently were encouraged by Trump’s past promises to lower taxes and eliminate unnecessary business regulations to spur the economy.

Media stocks, which were down between 1% and 2% earlier in the day, rallied too. Charter Communications finished the day up 3% ($7.61 each) to $269.87 per share, Dish Network rose 2.2% ($1.25) to $57.93 and Comcast closed the day at $63.45 per share, up 1.5% (93 cents) each. Programmers also saw gains, with Viacom up 1.7% (63 cents) to $37.98; 21st Century Fox up 1.3% (36 cents) to $27.45 and QVC Group up 3.2% (62 cents) to $20.25.

Time Warner shares were down 1.6% ($1.43 each) to $86.44 per share, while AT&T shares rose 1.1% (42 cents) for the day. AT&T and Time Warner announced their $108.7 billion merger late last month, a union that Trump said he would block if President.

With a week left in the seemingly interminable 2016 election, reporters and industry watchers on the front lines of the often tawdry battle suggest that Trump v. Clinton may alter the face of American politics, and the way it’s covered, for years to come.

While Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have been scrutinized from every conceivable angle, it remains paradoxically possible that the electorate still doesn’t know where they stand on key issues. Exactly who’s at fault for that — the candidates, the journalists who cover them or the public that watches the journalists cover them — is a matter of opinion.

Related: Clinton Maintains Lead in New NBC-Survey Monkey Poll

Bill Hemmer, co-anchor of Fox News Channel’s America’s Newsroom, said one could make a case that neither candidate has yet been fully vetted.

“That may be the story Nov. 9,” Hemmer said. “I don’t think we know how either one of them would govern. Generally speaking, we do not know their policy positions.”

Read more about the 2016 presidential campaign.

Andrew Tyndall, editor of the news analysis-focused Tyndall Report, said 2008 ushered in the modern era of the personality-driven presidential campaign, with then-political wunderkind Barack Obama facing off against steely war hero John McCain. Tyndall believes that dynamic has dominated the 2016 bout.

“People say it’s a horse race,” Tyndall said. “But it’s Survivor, not Seabiscuit. It’s a reality TV race more than it’s a horse race.”

Related: CNN Cuts Ties With Brazile After Leak

With their sheer tonnage of air time, the cable news networks have focused both on the personalities and on the less sexy issues. Jake Tapper, chief Washington correspondent at CNN, spoke of seeing a “real hunger” among the public for meaty discussions.

“There’s an appreciation for non-partisan questions for both Democrats and Republicans,” Tapper said. “It’s real and it’s appreciated by a great deal by viewers.”

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.

WASHINGTON  — Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is holding on to her six point lead (47% to 41%) over Republican Donald Trump despite the announcement by Federal Bureau of Investigations director James Comey last week that the agency was looking into more emails that could be "pertinent" to the investigation of the private email server Clinton used while she was Secretary of State.

That is according to the latest NBC News/Survey Monkey tracking poll.

That comes despite the finding that 55% of respondents to the poll of likely voters said her alleged mishandling of classified email was an important issue. Forty-four percent said it is more of a distraction.

The survey was conducted online Oct. 24-30 among a national sample of 40,816 likely voters.

WASHINGTON — With Donald Trump’s Republican presidential campaign limping into the final stretch, kneecapped by multiple allegations of sexual misconduct and claims of conspiracy and election fraud, it is looking increasingly like Democrat Hillary Clinton’s administration will be the one putting the new stamp on communications policy.

Clinton championed network neutrality as secretary of state; strong network neutrality rules as a U.S. senator from New York; is on the record as supporting municipal broadband buildouts; and has talked the same talk as President Obama about the importance of universal broadband access.

MERGER HAWK?

Clinton could be tougher on mergers than the Obama Federal Communications Commission and Justice Department, which allowed the Comcast-NBCUniversal, DirecTV-AT&T and Charter Communications-Time Warner Cable (and Bright House Networks) mergers, though not without conditions that Republicans branded onerous.

In an October 2015 interview with Website qz.com, Clinton said she would beef up antitrust enforcement at DOJ and the Federal Trade Commission: “I will direct more resources to hire aggressive regulators who will conduct in-depth industry research to better understand the link between market consolidation and stagnating incomes. Ultimately, this will foster a change in corporate culture that restores competition to the marketplace.”

The first woman president would have a number of like candidates for the FCC chairmanship, though the honor of first woman to chair the commission has already been taken by Mignon Clyburn in the interim between Julius Genachowski and Tom Wheeler.

According to various sources, Susan Ness and Karen Kornbluh could be in the running for FCC chairman under Clinton. If the post does not go to a woman, Blair Levin — a former top FCC official and architect of the National Broadband Plan and its spectrum auction — is another name that has surfaced more than once over the years for that job.

It is not yet clear who would be working on the telecom transition team: Wheeler was a key figure on Obama’s team.

One Democratic source who spoke on background said Ed Meier, who worked on tech issues for the campaign and is on the team, could take a lead role. Levin could also lend a hand and John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman, would almost certainly have input.

On the FCC front, Ness is a former commissioner who has made no secret of her willingness to step into the breach, according to various industry sources. Kornbluh also has a resume that dovetails nicely with the job.

Kornbluh — Ambassador Kornbluh at that — is currently executive vice president for external affairs at Nielsen, but before that she was ambassador to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development under President Obama and served as his policy director when he was a senator. She also has a connection to the Clintons, having served in legislative affairs during Bill Clinton’s administration while at Treasury.

A Clinton administration would at least threaten some of the new money that has come into the political ad market since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed corporations and unions to fund more of those ads. Back in July, she released a video promising to put campaign finance reform at the top of her political agenda and proposed a constitutional amendment overturning the court’s Citizens United decision within the first 30 days of her administration. She also pledged to push for better disclosure of campaign funding.

BROADBAND POLICY

Clinton talked up broadband access and connection as secretary of state in a speech about global information access, which she likened to freedom of assembly. At least one public-interest group did not like the sound of her take on trying to shut down terrorist recruiting online.

She got a thumbs-down (actually a “frowny face”) in a 2016 voter guide from ’net activist group Free Press for this 2015 interview answer on fighting terrorism: “We have to deny them online space. And this is complicated. You’re going to hear all of the usual complaints, you know, freedom of speech, etc. But if we truly are in a war against terrorism and we are truly looking for ways to shut off their funding, shut off the flow of foreign fighters, then we’ve got to shut off their means of communicating.”

Free Press also points out that Clinton in 2015 wrote an op-ed piece in support of the FCC’s pre-emption of state laws limiting municipal broadband buildouts. But with a court reversing the FCC’s pre-emptions in Tennessee and North Carolina, and the Obama administration deciding not to appeal that decision, that effort would likely have to come through funding and championing municipal buildouts in states not trying to block them.

After two days of playing one of the most public games of cat-and-mouse in recent memory, AT&T finally snagged its prey – Time Warner Inc. – in a cash, stock and assumed debt deal worth $108.7 billion that will combine the largest multichannel video programming providers in the country with the second largest content creator.

The deal is the second mega-deal for AT&T in two years – it paid $48.5 billion for satellite TV service provider DirecTV in July 2015 – and solidifies the telephone company’s position as a vertically integrated powerhouse. Once the deal is completed – and it is expected to take at least a year to wind through the various government agencies scrutinizing it – AT&T, which has 25 million pay TV customers, would control a major motion picture and television producer – Warner Bros. Entertainment – and a stable of networks including premium channel leader Home Box Office, TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, CNN and others.

“This is a perfect match of two companies with complementary strengths who can bring a fresh approach to how the media and communications industry works for customers, content creators, distributors and advertisers,” said AT&T chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson in a statement. “Premium content always wins. It has been true on the big screen, the TV screen and now it’s proving true on the mobile screen. We’ll have the world’s best premium content with the networks to deliver it to every screen. A big customer pain point is paying for content once but not being able to access it on any device, anywhere. Our goal is to solve that. We intend to give customers unmatched choice, quality, value and experiences that will define the future of media and communications.”

Speculation that AT&T was in early discussions with Time Warner about a possible merger first surfaced last Thursday.Talks heated up on Friday and according to sources pressure that another bidder would swoop in with a sweeter deal forced AT&T to act quickly.

In the end, AT&T will pay about $85.4 billion in stock and cash -- $53.75 in cash and another $53.75 AT&T stock, valuing Time Warner at $107.50 per share, a 36% premium over its $79.24 share price on Oct. 19. Including Time Warner’s debt, the total value of the deal is $108.7 billion.

AT&T is in the middle of a major transformation, launching an over-the-top service – DirecTV Now – later this quarter that is expected to eventually become the dominant transport vehicle for its entertainment services.

Stephenson has said publicly for more than a year that he believes the future of TV is mobility and with the Time Warner deal backs up that strategy with cold, hard cash.

“With great content, you can build truly differentiated video services, whether it’s traditional TV, OTT or mobile. Our TV, mobile and broadband distribution and direct customer relationships provide unique insights from which we can offer addressable advertising and better tailor content,” Stephenson said in a statement. “It’s an integrated approach and we believe it’s the model that wins over time.”

Time Warner on the other hand, gets a solid distribution partner with strong wireline, wireless and online assets. The content company, like its peers, has struggled with shifting viewership trends as more and more young consumers watch content on their phones and online.

“Combining with AT&T dramatically accelerates our ability to deliver our great brands and premium content to consumers on a multiplatform basis and to capitalize on the tremendous opportunities created by the growing demand for video content,” Time Warner chairman and CEO Jeff Bewkes said in a statement. “That’s been one of our most important strategic priorities and we’re already making great progress — both in partnership with our distributors, and on our own by connecting directly with consumers. Joining forces with AT&T will allow us to innovate even more quickly and create more value for consumers along with all our distribution and marketing partners, and allow us to build on a track record of creative and financial excellence that is second to none in our industry. In fact, when we announce our 3Q earnings, we will report revenue and operating income growth at each of our divisions, as well as double-digit earnings growth.”

There will be obvious regulatory hurdles – both the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice will have to sign off on the deal. And this being an election year, the uncertainty is even greater as a new administration takes hold in January.

Republican nominee Donald Trump has already said he would block the merger, calling it “too much concentration of power in the hands of too few.”

Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton hasn’t commented directly on the merger at press time, but she has in the past said she would increase anti-trust enforcement at DOJ and the Federal Trade Commission.

Aside from regulators, AT&T and Time Warner will have to convince Wall Street that it has cracked the vertical integration code, owning content and distribution in the same company. With the exception of Comcast-NBC Universal, most companies that have tried to marry content and distribution assets were seeking divorces shortly after. And some critics have said that Comcast’s main reason for success with NBCU was that it was a mismanaged, undervalued asset that it could get at an extremely attractive price. None of that could be said of Time Warner, which has managed to steer the choppy content waters expertly.

AT&T said it expects $1 billion in annual run rate costs synergies within three years of the deal closing, primarily driven by corporate and procurement expenditures. Over time, the two companies believe they can create incremental revenue opportunities that neither could achieve on a standalone basis.

AT&T and Time Warner executives are scheduled to hold a conference call with analysts to discuss the merger on Monday, Oct. 24 at 8:30 a.m.

A total of seven networks, along with the Washington Post, will live-stream the final 2016 presidential debate Oct. 19 via YouTube, the Google-owned company announced.

C-SPAN, NBC News, CBS News, Fox News, PBS, Univision and Telemundo are the networks that will carry their broadcast coverage live on YouTube, beginning at 9 p.m. ET.

Related:How to Stream a Debate, Gaffe-Free

The Oct. 9 presidential debate on YouTube drew 1.5 million peak concurrent viewers, with more than 2.5 million hours watched. Additionally,  as many as 10 million viewers watched live via illegal, pirated streams, according to VFT Solutions (read more here; subscription required).

Read more on broadcastingcable.com.

WASHINGTON — While Donald Trump has been criticizing the media for reporting on statements he made about groping women, more (49%) of Republican presidential candidate’s supporters say the news media should emphasize a candidate's "offensive statements" than say they shouldn’t (45%).

Supporters of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, who’ve been having a field day with Trump’s comments, were even more enthusiastic about reporting offensive comments: 72% of Clinton supporters who responded to a Pew Research Center survey said such comments should be reported, while only 26% said they should not.

Of course, it’s up to individuals to decide which remarks they conclude are offensive and deserve calling out.

Pew’s survey polled 3,616 registered voters (1,396 were Trump reporters and 1,775 were Clinton supporters) from Sept. 27-Oct. 10. The margin of error for the Trump supporters was 4.7 percentage points and for Clinton fans, 4.2 percentage points.

Respondents were also overwhelmingly in favor of the media calling out candidates for false statements. More than four out of five Clinton supporters (83%) said that the media should "emphasize inaccurate statements," while only 16% said they should not. Almost as many Trump supporters (71%) said they should call out inaccuracies, while 25% said no.

On that subject, the majority (53%) of Trump supporters said it is a major responsibility of the news media to fact-check candidates, while only 24% said that is a minor responsibility and 10% said it’s not their responsibility at all.

While Nielsen ratings were down for Sunday's (Oct. 9) presidential debate from the first debate, live streaming made up for at least some of the slack, according to online analytics company Hitwise, a division of Connexity.

For example, it said, YouTube had a 40% increase in debate content views from the first debate, and Twitter reported a 30% increase in traffic to its live stream vs. the Sept. 26 debate.

Related: Pro Football Trumps Presidential Debate Coverage on Cable

At least 20,000 people in the U.S. searched for where and how to stream the debate, Hitwise said, with the majority skewing young, male, educated and Hispanic. Supporters of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton were 34% more likely to have searched for the stream than supporters of the GOP's Donald Trump.

Read more about the 2016 presidential campaign.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump drew the most U.S. social media interactions related to a TV show on Facebook and Twitter Sunday night (Oct. 9) during the second televised debate, according to Nielsen Social.

Related:Survey: Clinton Leads Trump Nationally by 11 Points

Trump was mentioned in Tweets 5.5 million times and Clinton only 2.1 million times, but there was arguably more to talk about on the Trump side given the recent revelations about a tape from an Access Hollywood pre-segment conversation between Trump and Billy Bush.

In all, there were a whopping 62 million social media interactions on Facebook and Twitter from 18.2 million people in the U.S. Each Tweeter interacted an average of seven times about the debate. Facebook saw 47.2 million interactions, 63% of which were by women or girls.

Related:Candidates' Compliments Were TiVo Top Debate Moments

Interactions are defined as social media posts related to a linear TV episode plus follow-up engagement with those posts.

Interestingly, the online activity id not peak early in the debate during talk about the tapes or Clinton's e-mails, but instead between 10 p.m. and 10: 14 p.m. when the candidates were talking about taxes and Syria.

Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton leads Republican Donald Trump by 11 percentage points (46% to 35%) among likely voters in the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal tracking poll, which found a solid majority (72%) saying Trump's recently revealed comments about women were either inappropriate, but typical of some men (31%) or completely unacceptable (41%).

With the third-party candidates removed, Clinton's lead in the polls grows to 14 points. That is the largest margin since NBC/WSJ began polling the pair last September.

The poll was taken Saturday and Sunday (Oct. 8 and 9), after The Washington Post reported on a tape of lewd comments Trump made about women to then Access Hollywood host Billy Bush, but before Sunday night's second presidential debate.

A majority (52%) of all respondents said the tape should be a campaign issue, while 42% said it shouldn't, according to the poll.

Looking at the races for control of Congress -- where Republicans hold the majority both the Senate and the House -- 49% of all respondents said they'd like to see Democrats in power again, compared with 42% who chose the GOP. That is up three percentage points from a month ago and the biggest Dem advantage since the October 2009 government shutdown, according to NBC/WSJ.

The poll was of 500 registered voters and has a margin of error of 4.6 percent for likely voters and 4.4% for all respondents.

NBC said it will also release a post-debate poll in the next few days.

The first presidential debate, which aired across multiple cable and broadcast networks Monday (Sept. 26), was a social media behemoth on Facebook and Twitter.

It drew the most uniques of any TV series or special on the night by a factor of almost 100, logging in at 23,974,000. The next highest uniques total was generated by another type of face-off, WWE's Monday Night RAW, with 255,000.

Uniques are “unique social media accounts that have authored original content [on those platforms] related to a linear TV episode or engaged with that content."

The total number of posts about the debate, and further interactions with those posts (dubbed "engagement"), was a whopping 83,016,000, some 200 times the same figure for RAW (426,000).

The baseball game on MLB network (the Mets vs. the Marlins) was third in uniques on the night, with 1,496,000.

Sling TV will offer new customers a free 18-hour preview of its Sling Orange service  on Monday, Sept. 26 in anticipation of the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

Sling Orange is Sling TV’s single stream service that features more than 25 channels for $20 per month. The service includes popular networks such as ESPN, CNN, AMC, Comedy Central, Bloomberg Television and more and is available on TVs, tablets and computers.

In addition to the debate, free preview viewers can also watch the NFL Monday Night Football matchup between the Atlanta Falcons and New Orleans Saints on ESPN.

“Sling TV is synonymous with live television, and whether America craves pigskins or politics, these two events on Monday night represent the pinnacle of must-see-live TV,” said Sling TV CEO Roger Lynch in a statement. “This preview is one hundred percent free and gives all Americans the opportunity to watch the first Presidential debate and more; I can’t think of a better night to welcome new Sling TV viewers to experience our service.”

Monday’s debate between Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton is expected to be one of the most watch political scrums ever. The Monday debate, scheduled for 9 p.m. ET at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., is the first of three scheduled discussions between the candidates. The other two debates are slated for Oct. 9 at Washington University in St. Louis and for Oct. 19 at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas.   

According to Sling, no credit card or payment will be required for the preview – only a valid e-mail address is needed. New Sling TV customers can sign up for the free preview today by visiting here.

The free preview will run from 8 a.m. ET Monday, Sept. 26, through 2 a.m. ET Tuesday, Sept. 27, allowing viewers to watch pre- and post-coverage of the debate and football highlights.

A quartet of House ranking members--which means Democrats--has asked the FBI to look into whether ties between Trump campaign officials and Russia might have contributed to attacks on the DNC and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee as a way to affect the U.S. elections.

In a letter to FBI director James Comey this week, the legislators said that "serious questions have been raised about overt and covert actions by Trump campaign officials on behalf of Russian interests and that "it is critical for the American public to know whether those actions may have directly caused or indirectly motivated" the attacks.

They also cited, among other things, Donald Trump's suggestion that Russia should hack Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton's e-mails, Trump has said he was only joking, and Trump's praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

They ended a laundry list of examples with the concession they did not know if any of them led directly or indirectly to any Russian hacks, but suggested in the interests of thoroughness that the U.S. should take "all possible steps" to prevent Russia from interfering with the election.

Sending the letter were Reps. Elijah Cummings (Md.), ranking member of the Government Reform Committee; John Conyers (Mich.), Elliot Engel (N.Y.), ranking member, Foreign Affairs Committee; and Bennie Thompson (Miss.), ranking member, Homeland Security Committee.

More than 50 million viewers combined tuned into the Democratic and Republican national conventions, according to Nielsen. 

Lat week's Democratic convention in Philadelphia averaged 26.2 million viewers over four days (July 27-30), compared to 24.6 million viewers for the Republican national convention in Cleveland a week prior (July 18-21) across multiple ad-supported networks, according to Nielsen.

Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s speech Thursday drew 29.5 million viewers across 10 ad-supported channels according to Nielsen, marking the most-viewed night of the four-day convention.

The audience, however, fell short of the 32.2 million viewers that tuned into Donald Trump’s July 28 Republican acceptance speech, according to Nielsen.

CNN delivered 6.17 million total viewers during 10 and 11:45 p.m. from the Democratic National Convention, including 2.16 million in the 25-54 age bracket.

That topped cable rivals MSNBC, at 4.92 million total and 1.41 million in the 25-54 demo, and Fox News at 2.39 million and 662,000, respectively.

NBC was tops among broadcasters at 4.15 million total viewers and 1.5 million adults 25-54.

The Philadelphia wingding featured speeches from President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and VP hopeful Tim Kaine, all singing the praises of Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton.

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.

Day two of the Democratic convention (Tuesday, July 26), with speakers including Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker and former President Bill Clinton, continued to dominate the list of most-Tweeted TV shows according to Nielsen Social, but was down markedly from the first night, which featured Michelle Obama and Bernie Sanders' much anticipated reconciliation speech.

Tuesday night's coverage on broadcast and cable nets drew a total of 1,657,000 Tweets from 389,000 unique authors, more than ten times its nearest competitor, WWE SmackDown on USA Networks with 133,000 from 33,000 uniques.

Rounding out the top five were The Bachelorette on ABC with 110,000/53,000; America's Got Talent on NBC at 46,000/20,000 and Scream on MTV with 33,000/6,000.

Day three's combination of President Barack Obama, Vice Presidential candidate Tim Kaine and former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg is likely to best that Day two number. Totals will be released later today (July 28).

The Democratic National Convention was the most-Tweeted TV show Monday night (July 25) with 3.3 million Tweets sent by 693,000 people, according to Nielsen Social. It obviously benefitted from being roadblocked on multiple networks.

That Tweet total was almost exactly double that of the Republicans' first day, which drew 1.645 million tweets from 449,000 people, still the most-Tweeted show by a mile on that night (July 18).

The Dems had an all-star lineup on their first day, including Michelle Obama and the much-anticipated reconciliation speech from Bernie Sanders, which might explain the particularly heavy Tweet load versus the GOP's less star-studded initial outing.

The Democratic convention's Twitter activity spiked at 10:31--when broadcast nets as well as cable were covering the proceedings--following the speech by First Lady Michelle Obama, when 30,400 Tweets were sent in a single minute.

Rounding out the top five Tweeted-about TV shows of the night were The Bachelorette at 270,000 Tweets by 112,000 people; WWE Monday Night Raw on USA with 266,000 by 47,000 people; Love & Hip Hop; Atlanta on VH1 with 111,000/33,000; and Are you the One? on MTV at 19,000/6,000.

Related:Pew Plots Rise of Trump

Donald Trump's campaign website "mostly posts" stories from external news media, in contrast to Hillary Clinton's, which "almost entirely bypass[es] the news media," with campaign news sections that resemble digital news outlets, populated mostly by in-house-produced content, according to a just-released Pew Research study.

The same pattern held for social media posts from the candidates. Pew said that 78% of Trump's Facebook posts were links to outside news stories, while 80% of Clinton's posts were links to her campaign pages -- and their mostly self-generated stories and info. Twitter showed a similar pattern.

Trump's fondness for tweeting at the drop or a hat or rise of a poll number was borne out in the study. Trump’s tweets were retweeted almost 6,000 times on average, compared with some 1,500-plus for Clinton.

Trump has famously slammed the media, both in general and by insulting individual reporters along the campaign trail and following debates.

The study was of the campaign websites of presidential candidates -- looking at design features, static content and original news items (news articles, press releases and videos) posted between May 1 and June 15.

With presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton on the record with a detailed technology and communications policy agenda, the Consumer Technology Association called on the other presumptive nominees to follow suit.

CTA president Gary Shapiro said he likes what he saw in the Clinton agenda, saying, "I am encouraged not only with the range of the issues she covered but an implicit awareness that our national strategy and economy require encouraging innovation through smart government strategy and free market principles."

But he didn't like that he had not seen anything from either of the other two presumptive nominees, Republican Donald Trump or Libertarian Gary Johnson.

"Where do they differ from Secretary Clinton?" he asked in calling on them to unveil their tech platforms. "Where is there common ground? Do they have any plans at all on spectrum, investment, broadband, training and education, and competitiveness? If so, when will their plans be released?"

In the wake of Hillary Clinton's tough week in the media, when FBI director James Comey's announcement of no criminal charges over the presumptive Democratic nominee's handling of email while Secretary of State was accompanied by some harsh criticisms, Republican nominee Donald Trump has gained support in the key battleground states of Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

That is according to a new Quinnipiac University swing state poll, which found that Clinton has lost all of an eight-point lead in Florida since a June 21 survey, with Trump now leading in the state 42% to 39%. Trump is also leading in Pennsylvania and is tied with Clinton in Ohio, where Trump is hoping for an endorsement from Gov. John Kasich, which could boost that number.

Given the margin of error, those states are all essentially dead heats at the moment.  

"While there is no definite link between Clinton's drop in Florida and the U.S. Justice Department decision not to prosecute her for her handling of emails, she has lost ground to Trump on questions which measure moral standards and honesty," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.

Nationally, Clinton's lead has shrunk to 3 percentage points -- 42% to 39% -- and she fell below 50% for the first time in a year, according to a new McClatchy/Marist poll.

Related: Trump, Clinton in Dead Heat in Swing States.

Multicultural entertainment networks are prepping for the biggest entertainment event of the summer: the Democratic and Republican conventions, and their respective presumptive presidential nominees, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

This month, networks such as Fuse, Revolt, BET and TV One will provide both TV and digital coverage of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland (July 18-21) and the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia (July 25-28).

Providing news coverage through a multicultural lens — especially during an important and unpredictable campaign season — should appeal to the networks’ target viewers despite the channels’ entertainment-programming pedigrees, network executives said.

“I think the landscape for this particular election season is uncharted territory,” Fuse Media CEO Michael Schwimmer said. “We have candidates on both sides that are controversial, and particularly on the Republican side, with regard to the Hispanic community. I don’t think we’ve seen this kind of change and acrimony in a way that so directly effects our audience.”

Fuse will air segments from the convention both on its air and online. They will be reported by correspondents Arlene Santana and James Villalobos, who were chosen by Fuse viewers last month as part of the network’s “Crash the Parties” initiative with nonprofit political organization Voto Latino, Schwimmer said.

Having covered the 2008 and 2012 conventions, Schwimmer added that there is far more interest among young viewers this year than in the previous elections.

“The interest in both candidates, along with the explosion of social media over the past eight years, makes this a better experience for us as an organization and for viewers who will get that content multiple ways,” Schwimmer said.

TV One president and CEO Brad Siegel said the network’s live daily coverage from the convention floors, via morning news program News One Now with Roland Martin, will provide its African-American audience with a more in-depth look at the issues important to them.

The show’s website, newsone.com, will also offer live reports from the conventions.

“Viewers expect us to be covering the most important news of the day, and be able to interpret and ask the questions of the newsmakers regarding how their politics affects African-Americans,” he said. “That’s our job — to ask the questions from a perspective that no one else is asking, and our viewers expect us to represent their point of view, their situations and how their policies affect their lives.”

Coverage of the conventions won’t be limited to what’s happening in the arenas. Revolt TV chief political correspondent Amrit Singh said he plans to complement the network’s convention coverage with reports from outside the proceedings, where major protests are expected.

“The story there is not only what’s happening in the convention halls but very much what’s happening in the streets,” he said.

As part of Revolt’s “Revolt 2 Vote” initiative, the network will feature live segments from the convention floor that will air on the network’s daily Revolt Live show as well as on network website revolt.tv, Singh said. The network will also break into regularly scheduled programming during the conventions to offer live updates and interviews from the convention floors, he added.

“These conventions are really four-day reality shows,” Singh said. “This is really an opportunity to galvanize the attention of our audience.”

Myx Tv general manager Miguel Santos added that a diverse offering of voices and images on television helps to assure that all voters have a chance to have their issues and concerns heard. 

“It’s important for multicultural networks to ensure that their viewers feel like they have a voice and their needs are being addressed,” said Santos, whose network is in process of planning its on-air and online election coverage.

“You’ll hear presidential candidates say ‘We have the African-American, Latino and event the LGBTQ+ vote’ but rarely is there a mention of Asian Americans," he added. "Our viewers need to know that  they can and should demand more attention because their votes matter too.”

Judiciary Committee chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) called on the FBI to give the public a gander at the evidence it used to conclude no charges should be brought against Hillary Clinton for using her unsecure private e-mail server for State Department communications.

FBI director James Comey too the unusual step of calling a press conference Tuesday (July 5) to announce that its investigation of Clinton resulted in no information that would warrant a criminal indictment by the Justice Department, though he revealed conclusions usually passed on to Justice without public airing.

Just last week President Obama signed FOIA reform legislation drafted that came out of Grassley's committee meant to make government agencies more open, and Grassley appeared ready to test that new presumption of openness.

“While Director Comey made it clear that Secretary Clinton and her staff were ‘extremely careless’ in handling classified information, he also recommended no criminal prosecution even though ‘gross negligence’ regarding classified information is a crime," he said in a statement e-mailed to Multichannel News. "If it wants to avoid giving the impression that the FBI was pulling punches, because many people in a similar situation would face some sort of consequence, the agency must now be more transparent than ever in releasing information gathered during its investigation. Even Director Comey said there should be extraordinary transparency. 

"That means more than simply giving the public a brief summary of his view of the facts," Grassley continued, referring to Comey's announcement, carried by the major news networks Tuesday. "It should include the actual evidence so the public can make an educated decision on its own about the judgment and decision-making of all the senior officials involved. There are plenty of FOIA and congressional requests pending that have been on hold because of the ongoing nature of the investigation, so now the FBI should respond fully and completely to all of them.”

Comey said while Clinton's e-mail handling had been extremely careless, and included some communications she should have known were classified and should have been secured, there was no indictable offense and no evidence of obstruction of justice.

Also weighing in was former presidential candidate and Senate Commerce Committee member Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).

"Hillary Clinton's actions have sent the worst message to the millions of hard-working federal employees who hold security clearances and are expected to go to great lengths to secure sensitive government information and abide by the rules," Rubio said. "They don't take their oaths lightly, and we shouldn't expect any less of their leaders. Her actions were grossly negligent, damaged national security and put lives at risk."

Cable news networks and broadcast news operations were covering the FBI's announcement that it was recommending to the Justice Department that no indictment was appropriate in the investigation of the handling of Hillary Clinton's e-mails as Secretary of State and that "no reasonable prosecutor" would bring charges in such a situation.

Broadcast network news operations broke into regular programming Tuesday to air FBI director James Comey's announcement that the law enforcement agency is recommending that no charges be brought against the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.

Comey said the FBI's investigation concluded there were careless procedures at State and emphasized he was not suggesting such conduct should be free of consequences, simply that they should not include a criminal indictment. But he also said even though the information in the emails may not have been marked "classified," Clinton and others should have known the emails were.

Comey described Clinton as "extremely careless" with the security of that email information.

While he said the FBI found no evidence that Clinton's servers had been hacked, he finessed that immediately, saying that given the skill of such hackers, they likely would leave no evidence if they had hacked Clinton's private servers.

TV pundits were viewing the announcement as a double-edged sword for the candidate. They led with the recomendation against indictment, but CNN's Wolf Blitzer, for example, called Comey's characterization of Clinton's handling of the info "damning" and a "severe slap."  Additionally, Clinton reportedly met with FBI investigators over the weekend, so the speed with which Comey made the recommendation surprised some commentators.

Clinton's likely GOP presidential rival, Donald Trump, tweeted following the Comey announcement: "The system is rigged. General Petraeus got in trouble for far less. Very very unfair! As usual, bad judgment," followed by "FBI director said Crooked Hillary compromised our national security. No charges. Wow! #RiggedSystem."

One Republican strategist--commening for CNN--said rather than focusing on a "rigged system," Trump should hammer Clinton over how she had characterized her handling of the e-mails versus how Comey characterized it.

Clinton reportedly had a meeting over the weekend with FBI investigators, so the speed with which Comey made the recommendation surprised some commentators.

Presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has released her full technology  policy agenda, which includes fighting for Title II -- and applying it to interconnection -- in court if need be and tapping into a $25 billion Infrastructure Bank to provide money to localities to foster access to high-speed Internet at "affordable prices."

Among her other planks are defending net neutrality abroad, creating a Chief Innovation Adviser position, closing the "digital divide," pushing 5G wireless deployment, reallocating and repurposing government spectrum, and promoting a multistakeholder model of Internet governance.

"Hillary believes that the government has an obligation to protect the open internet," the campaign said. [She] strongly supports the FCC decision under the Obama Administration to adopt strong network-neutrality rules that deemed Internet service providers to be common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act. These rules now ban broadband discrimination, prohibit pay-for-play favoritism and establish oversight of “interconnection” relationships between providers. Hillary would defend these rules in court and continue to enforce them. She also maintains her opposition to policies that unnecessarily restrict the free flow of data online – such as the high-profile fight over the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)."

In the platform, the Clinton campaign points out that the candidate made network neutrality a foreign policy imperative as Secretary of State..

The Computer & Communications Industry Association, representing many companies that also pushed for net-neutrality rules and broadband buildouts, applauded the candidate's tech platform.

“The ability to grow the economy in the future will depend on a good foundation for the digital economy," said CCIA president Ed Black. "This is the platform of a candidate who can be trusted to grow the economy. [W]hat distinguishes Clinton is her articulation of a platform to provide better trained workers, Internet access, and policies both here and with our trading partners to deliver economic growth.” 

CCIA had suggested a tech policy platform in a letter to the presidential candidates.

Linda Moore, president of TechNet, comprising senior technology execs, praised Clinton for outlining her agenda and echoed CCIA's shout-out.

“Hillary Clinton is the first of the presidential candidates to lay out a technology and innovation agenda," Moore said. "In doing so, Hillary proves that she gets it — that our nation's ability to grow our economy and drive job creation is dependent on our ability to stay ahead of the curve in innovation."

TechNet was also a signatory to that tech policy platform letter.

A majority of millennial supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will vote for his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, if he pulls out of the race, according to a poll conducted by MTV.

MTV says that 57% of the millennials who say they prefer Sanders say they will vote for former Secretary of State Clinton, 22% said they would write someone in, 18% won’t vote and just 3% said they’d vote for Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee.

The poll is part of MTV’s Elect This Campaign that looks at election year issues important to young voters.

For more of this story, please visit broadcastingcable.com.

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Presumptive GOP Nominee Donald Trump trails Democrat Hillary Clinton by only three points nationally, 48% to 45%, according to a new NBC News/Survey Monkey online poll, compared to a 5 point lead only a week ago.

Trump leads with independents 44% to 36%.

Related:Mark Cuban: I'd Vote for Hillary

Clinton leads Trump with black voters, Hispanics, women and those with a college degree. Trump wins with white voters, men, and those with a high school degree or less, according to the poll.

Related:INTX 2016: Cable Icons Take Aim at Trump

Very conservative Republican registered voters say they favor Trump to lead the party over House Speaker Paul Ryan 63% to 34%.

The survey was an online weekly election tracking poll May 9-15 of 14,100 adults, with a margin of error of plus or minus 1.1 percentage points for the entire survey and 2.3 points for the Republicans registered voters.

Shark Tank co-star, AXS TV chairman and billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban said he was quick to rebuff explorations that he run as an independent candidate for president, but he said if the election were held today, he would probably be casting his vote for Hillary Clinton.

In an interview with CNN's Erin Burnett, Cuban said of Clinton: better the devil you know.

He said at least he knew what her policies were, while Trump lists issues on his website but does not say how he will address them. Execution, Cuban said, is the key to success in business and elsewhere, noting it is easy to talk about it, not so easy to do get it done.

Cuban said he had gotten an e-mail through an associate about possibly running, but that there was no chance, "none," that he would run. He said it was too late to get on ballots, for one thing. He called it a quick no and characterized the suggestion as "ridiculous."

But he suggested a Trump presidency was no laughing matter, and that isolationist economic policies could lead to a huge market "correction." Burnett asked for numbers, and Cuban said 20% or more was possible, particularly given high-frequency trading.

Burnett played a clip from Shark Tank in which billionaire Cuban was berating a contestant and asked Cuban if he thought he had been reached out to because he was kind of like Trump himself.

"At least I have a billion dollars," Cuban said, a reference to those, including himself, who are not convinced Trump is worth what he says he is. Cuban conceded that being an outspoken billionaire probably figured into the approach about running. Also, like Trump, he said he can get access to media "anytime, anywhere, anyhow," and he knows how to take advantage of it, which is what Trump has done so successfully.

Asked how smart Trump is, Cuban said probably not as smart as Trump thinks he is. Cuban said he had been excited when Trump got into the race, but the candidate has not appeared to learn along the way. Where he has come from, Cuban said he would have thought he would be more knowledgeable about issues like jobs and immigration, but that that was not the case.

Comcast DVR or TiVo — which is a tech-savvy Secretary of State to choose so she won’t miss one of her favorite TV shows?

Or maybe she could just “tape a DVD.”

Secretary (and likely Democratic presidential nominee) Hillary Clinton has already revealed she is a fan of the recently- concluded PBS period drama Downton Abbey. But how big a fan? Inquiring Wire minds wanted to know.

In our quest, we mined the WikiLeaks data dump of (unclassified) emails from her server —WikiLeaks got the emails via a Freedom of Information Act request and made them available in a searchable online database. And now we know.

“I’m addicted to Downton Abbey which runs on Sunday night and reruns on Thursday at 8 p.m.,” Clinton emailed an associate in early January 2012. “Since I missed it Sunday and will again tomorrow, so [I] was wondering if you could tape a DVD for me or see if I can get TiVo on my TV at home. I asked Marina to look into TiVo but don’t know what she found out.”

Response: “Yes! A lot of people have been talking about that show and I keep missing it as well. Will work with Marina on the TiVo/DVR. If we can’t get it by tomorrow, we’ll make sure to tape it for you.”

Clinton: “Is a DVR the same as TiVo?”

Response: “Yes the DVR does the same thing as a TiVo. The menus will look different. If you don’t like the Comcast DVR, we can always switch out for a TiVo instead.”

No word on whether Comcast or TiVo won out.

— John Eggerton

‘Wild’ Time on Embassy Row

NatGeo Wild vice president and general manager Geoff Daniels joined with Aussie Matt Wright, star of The Outback Wrangler, to launch the second season of the wildlife series with a reception at the Washington, D.C., residence of Australian Ambassador Joe Hockey. [Bundaberg makes great ginger beer, btw.]

The Wire was there and chatted up the ambassador, who diplomatically sidestepped comment on the current political climate, though another attendee from Down Under was hoping this was not the kind of democracy the U.S. was exporting abroad. Ouch, mate!

As for the evening’s focus — the wrangler of potentially deadly crocs — Daniels said the show’s mission was to encourage respect for the planet and all the animals on it. He suggested the killers, like crocs, arguably needed champions more than the cuddly critters.

Daniels called the series “ripping great TV,” though “ripping” is clearly something Wright tries to avoid.

Ambassador Hockey pointed out that he had brought a cat from home to the United States— he just took over the post in January — noting that it was the one that had not been eaten by a python. Double ouch, your excellency!

— John Eggerton

All Nations Network Seeks Native Niche on U.S. TV Lineups

Aboriginal Peoples Television Network launched in Canada 16 years ago on pay TV systems via a government mandate. Many tagged it as a social experiment, APTN chief operating officer Sky Bridges says. Now, top shows on the network such as reservation drama Blackstone and reality series Mohawk Girls win prizes at festivals including the Alberta Film and Television Awards.

Bridges and company hope that a U.S. version, dubbed All Nations Network, will find a place on pay TV lineups this year based on that track record (300-plus awards overall) and factors including heightened interest in native peoples (think of Leonardo DiCaprio’s “First Nations” shout-out at the Golden Globes) and in themes like regenerating the earth.

“There are over 200 television channels in the U.S. that fall into the multicultural programming arena, and not one is native,” Bridges told The Wire. “We feel that the large native friendly audience in the U.S. has real growth potential, as witnessed by our ratings success in Canada with not only native but non-native viewers.” Some 89% of the Canadian channel’s viewing audience is non-native, APTN says.

Bridges and Castalia Communications SVP Bob Watson, handling the distribution side, have been pitching ANN to U.S. distributors as a 24-hour network with news, sports and kids’ fare in addition to the primetime originals, with more meetings planned at INTX. So far, distributors have said it’s “unique” and “worthwhile,” Watson said.

The initial U.S. target audience is 5.2 million Native Americans, per the census, and 11 million who claim native ancestry, Bridges said.

— Kent Gibbons

WASHINGTON — Free Press Action Fund released a 2016 Internet Voter Guide Monday (March 14) providing its take on the candidates views on the issues the net neutrality fan says are most important to Internet voters.

Nobody got particularly high marks on the issue of encryption, with free press saying no candidate has backed "strong, pro-consumer" measures.

"Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz and Sen. Marco Rubio have all challenged Apple’s right to protect the security of its users, and both Democratic candidates vaguely advocated for both parties to work together for a solution," Free Press said. For its part, the group has backed protests of the FBI's legal effort to get Apple to help it access info on the phone of one of the San Bernardino shooters.

The guide also out, for example, that Hillary Clinton in 2015 wrote a piece in support of the FCC's preemption of state laws limiting municipal broadband buildouts, while Ted Cruz wrote the FCC claiming it was a threat to states rights

Other takeaways:

• "While more than 34 million Americans lack truly high-speed Internet at home, Donald Trump and Cruz have been silent on the issue and Gov. John Kasich has suggested that consumers are to blame for high broadband prices. In the Republican field, only Rubio has backed legislation to expand affordable Wi-Fi deployment and further use of unlicensed spectrum for Internet access.

• "Though three-quarters of Americans have either no broadband or no choice of Internet service providers, Cruz and Rubio oppose community broadband networks, which give local businesses and residents alternative options for high-speed Internet access. Neither Trump nor Kasich have articulated positions on the issue.

• "Cruz was one of only four Republicans to sponsor the USA Freedom Act, which curbs some of the government’s mass surveillance powers, and Kasich agreed that it was a “step forward.” When Secretary Hillary Clinton was in the Senate, she cast votes that enabled NSA mass surveillance but has since called on the NSA to be more transparent. Sen. Bernie Sanders has opposed the Patriot Act and stated that he would 'absolutely' end sweeping NSA surveillance. Trump and Rubio are both in favor of government spying on Americans.

• "Cruz, Rubio and Trump all oppose the Net Neutrality protections that millions of Americans fought for: All three Republican contenders have come out against the FCC’s open Internet rules. Both Democratic candidates have advocated for enforcing strong Net Neutrality rules."

Fox News Channel’s Democratic Town Hall event last night (March 7) featuring presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders drew 2.6 million viewers, the network reported Tuesday.

The one-hour event, which marked Clinton’s first appearance on FNC in two years, also drew 473,000 viewers in the key adult 25-54 demo during the 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. time block, according to network officials.

The Detroit-based special, hosted by Bret Baier, preceeded today’s presidential primary election in Michigan. Hawaii, Idaho and Mississippi are also holding primaries today.

Fox News Friday announced that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will join fellow candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders for ithe network's  March 7 Democratic Town Hall telecast.

Clinton’s appearance on Fox News will be the first for the former Secretary of State since 2014. The one-hour Fox News Special Report event will be held in Detroit and will be moderated by Fox News’ chief political anchor Bret Baier, according to the network.

Baier co-moderated last night’s Fox News' Republican Presidential debate telecast, which generated 16.9 million viewers, said network officials.

Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump appear poised to dominate in the Super Tuesday primary state voting March 1, and Trump has widened his lead nationally over a diminishing GOP field, according to various national and state polls.

Trump has 49% of Republicans, 33 points ahead of his closest rival, Marco Rubio, with Ted Cruz at 15% (essentially Rubio and Cruz are in a statistical tie for second), according to the latest CNN/ORC poll (conducted Feb. 24-27).

On the Democratic side, Clinton has 55% of Democratic voters to rival Bernie Sanders' 38%.

If Trump and Clintondominate, each will be in a strong position to grab their respective nominations, though Cruz is leading in his home state of Texas, which would give him more than a quarter (155) of the delegates at stake on the GOP side.

A dozen states (and American Samoa) hold their primaries March 1, with 595 delegates at stake on the Republican side and 865 on the Democratic, according to an NPR Super Tuesday primer.

A total of 2,383 delegates are needed to win the Democratic nomination and 1,237 needed to win the Republican nod. Political analyst Josh Putnam, interviewed for the Washington Post, said the different totals are because the Republicans only allocate three delegates per congressional district, whether is heavily Republican, while Democrats allocate more delegates in Democrat-heavy districts.

With all due respect to Ted Cruz, Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, the biggest winners at Monday night’s Iowa caucus were the cable news networks.

With viewer interest in this year’s presidential political campaign at unprecedented levels, its not surprising that Fox News, CNN and MSNBC drew big numbers for their coverage of the political primary season’s first voting night.

Fox News and CNN can fight over whose caucus coverage won over the biggest audeince – Fox News drew 4.3 million viewers during the 8 p.m. to midnight time period to top all news nets, while CNN reached a cable news network high 1.4 million viewers in the adult 25-54 category – but the fact is that coverage from all three networks easily bested their respective primetime audience averages.

The high ratings performances continues the trend begun last fall with the Republican Presidential debate telecasts notching record audiences for Fox News and CNN, as well as Fox Business Network and CNBC.

With the New Hampshire primaries a week away and primaries in Nevada and South Carolina later this month, look for viewers to continue to vote for the cable news networks as the primary outlets for their political fix.

CNN will air a Democratic town hall live from Iowa tonight (Monday) at 9 p.m. ET. The final pitch to Iowa voters comes during an event at Drake University's Sheslow Auditorium in Des Moines a week before the presidential campaign's first votes are cast at the state's caucuses.

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont will appear first, followed by ex-Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley and then former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, CNN said Monday, amid a tightening in opinion polls between the top two candidates. Each will have 30 minutes onstage and will face questions from audience members as well as CNN anchor Chris Cuomo.

The Iowa Democratic Party and Drake University invited the audience, which will also include some CNN guests. The town hall will also be live-streamed online and across mobile devices via CNNgo, the network said. CNN International and CNN en Espanol will also simulcast the town hall.

Vice President Joe Biden has announced he is not running for president, which leaves the Democratic field open for the battle between front-runners Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.

The vice president made the announcement in a Rose Garden speech flanked by his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, and President Obamasaying that as he was working through the grieving process over the death of his son and the decision about whether to make another run for the White House, the window of opportunity had closed on mounting a "realistic" campaign.

He said he was out of time to wage a winning campaign.

Media outlets were likely hoping Biden would jump in, at least for the additional political advertising it would have brought to the Democratic race. But at least they had gotten some "draft Biden" ads.