Why is NBC News Burying a Documentary on Trump Family Separation Policy Until After Election?

This story was originally published in Oliver Darcy’s subscription outlet Status. It has been reprinted with permission.

NBCU News Group boss Cesar Conde is — yet again — facing questions about an eyebrow-raising editorial decision that was made within his palace’s walls.

Earlier this month, MSNBC Films announced it had acquired Separated, the documentary from Academy Award-winning filmmaker Errol Morris, based on the book from NBC News correspondent Jacob Soboroff which detailed the horrors of Donald Trump’s child separation policy. The film premiered over the summer at the Venice Film Festival to rave reviews and will complete its Academy Award-qualifying theatrical run at the IFC Center in New York later this week, in addition to playing in several other markets later this month. If it manages to win an Oscar, it would be the first for MSNBC Films and NBC News Studios, which produced the film.

Inside MSNBC, the documentary has garnered strong support. Both Morris and Soboroff have appeared on several shows to promote the film. Chris Hayes attended a screening over the weekend

and described it afterward as an “absolutely urgent” film “that truly shook” him. And Rachel Maddow, the progressive channel’s marquee star, also recently saw the film and was deeply moved by it, I’m told.

In fact, according to people familiar with the matter, Maddow was so impressed by the documentary that she offered to play a key role promoting it. Upon seeing the film, Maddow volunteered to do an entire special on Trump’s child separation policy in the immediate hour preceding its network premiere, the people said. In effect, she would use her mega-platform to hype the documentary and juice its premiere ratings — an offer that still, to my understanding, stands.

But something unusual happened. Word came down that the powers at be inside 30 Rock had opted to effectively sit on the film, setting the documentary’s network premiere until after the election in December, a bizarre decision that frustrated the filmmakers and has raised questions among staffers internally.

“Why is my movie not being shown on NBC prior to the election? It is not a partisan movie. It’s about a policy that was disgusting and should not be allowed to happen again,” Morris wrote on X over the weekend.

“Make your own inferences,” added the Oscar-winning director, not-so-subtly signaling that politics played a determining role in the matter.

Morris isn’t exactly off base… While MSNBC

boss Rashida Jones could have arguably found time to air the documentary sometime in October, I’m told that NBC News boss Rebecca Blumenstein, who is still hoping to persuade Trump to participate in a debate, was opposed to airing the film until after the election. It goes without saying that airing a no-holds-barred documentary scrutinizing Trump would likely hinder the network’s chances at luring Trump onto its stage for an October face-off. (Stephen Labaton, head of communications at NBCU News Group, insisted to me on Monday that “the debate had nothing to do with the scheduling of this programming.”)

In any case, NBCU News Group is Conde’s domain…

Read the rest of this story on Status.