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Why CNN documentary on Hillary Clinton was scrubbed

Director Charles Ferguson has abandoned plans to make a Hillary Clinton documentary. He says he faced opposition not just from Republicans, but from Democrats and the Clintons.

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(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks about Syria in Washington earlier this month. A filmmaker who was trying to make a documentary about Hillary Clinton for CNN says he is backing out of the project.
  • By Staff Associated Press

| New York

A filmmaker who was making a documentary about Hillary Clinton for CNN says he is backing out of the project because few people would cooperate with him.

Charles Ferguson wrote in a column posted on The Huffington Post on Monday that he concluded he couldn't make much of a film. He says that of more than 100 people he approached, only two who had dealt with the former of secretary of state agreed to speak on camera.

Ferguson wrote:

" ... when I approached people for interviews, I discovered that nobody, and I mean nobody, was interested in helping me make this film. Not Democrats, not Republicans -- and certainly nobody who works with the Clintons, wants access to the Clintons, or dreams of a position in a Hillary Clinton administration."

CNN confirms the account. The network says it understands and respects Ferguson's decision.

Because of the documentary project, the Republican National Committee has voted to block CNN from hosting Republican presidential primary debates in 2016.

"It's appalling to know executives at major networks like NBC and CNN who have donated to Democrats and Hillary Clinton have taken it upon themselves to be Hillary Clinton's campaign operatives," RNC chair Reince Priebus said in a statement in August. "I hope Americans will question the credibility of these networks and that NBC and CNN will reconsider their partisan actions and cancel these political ads masked as unbiased entertainment."

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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