Broadcast Networks So Far Are Holding Off On Carrying Joe Biden’s Primetime Speech

deadline.com:

UPDATED, with speech excerpts: President Joe Biden will deliver a speech in Philadelphia tonight on the “continued battle for the soul of the nation,” and while cable networks and news streaming channels will cover the address, broadcast networks have so far yet to announce plans to carry it.Those plans could still change at the last minute, sources say.Unlike a White House address, Biden’s speech is taking place at Independence National Historical Park, in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania just as the midterm campaigns are heating up.

Broadcast networks have traditionally been more reluctant to pre-empt primetime for political rallies or partisan addresses, save for major events like political conventions and election night.According to excepts released by the White House, Biden tell viewers that he is speaking “plainly to the nation about the threats we face.

About the power we have in our own hands to meet those threats. And about the incredible future that lies in front of us if only we choose it.”“MAGA forces are determined to take this country backwards,” Biden said. “Backwards to an America where there is no right to choose, no right to privacy, no right to contraception, no right to marry who you love.”He’ll also talk about how Americans have “reassured ourselves that American democracy is guaranteed.

But it is not. We have to defend it. Protect it. Stand up for it. Each and every one of us.”Earlier, a senior administration official told reporters that the president “will talk about the direct threats to democracy from MAGA Republicans and the extremism that is a threat right now to our democratic values.” But, per NBC News, the official said that it is “not a speech about a particular politician, or