A documentary about the Trump administration's family separation policy will not air before Election Day because MSNBC is concerned about offending the Republican presidential nominee, according to new reports.
Journalist Oliver Darcy, a former critic for CNN, revealed Tuesday that the Errol Morris documentary based on Jacob Soboroff's 2020 book "Separated: Inside an American Tragedy," is being held by NBC bosses until Dec. 7 — a move that apparently annoyed the director.
“Why is my movie not being shown on NBC prior to the election?” Morris wrote on X. “It’s about a policy that was disgusting and should not be allowed to happen again. Make your own inferences.”
Darcy reported MSNBC bigwigs were eager to throw their support behind the work and promote the documentary, which he argued could be Oscar-worthy.
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"Not only does NBCU have a potential Oscars contender on its hands with the child separation documentary," he wrote, "but Rachel Maddow has offered to do an hour-long special hyping the film ahead of its network debut, I’m told.
"And yet, company brass has inexplicably declined to air it until after the November election."
Darcy also reported NBC bosses "don’t want to offend Donald Trump, according to The Wrap."
"On Monday’s edition of his Status newsletter, he reported that Rebecca Blumenstein, president of editorials for NBC News, opposed airing 'Separated' before the election because the network still hopes Trump will agree to another presidential debate," the outlet reported.
NBCUniversal vice president of communications Stephen Labaton reportedly denied that fellow executives wanted to lure Trump onto the debate stage.
"The debate had nothing to do with the scheduling of this programming," he told Vanity Fair.