Tell the networks: air the president's speech tonight

The executives of the big TV networks have decided not to air the president's speech on immigration tonight. This is unacceptable--but we still have time to change it.

Dear MoveOn member,

Tonight, the president of the United States will address the nation from the Oval Office—to discuss significant and long-anticipated reforms to our broken immigration system. But the network executives would rather not break for 15 minutes from their TV dramas and weight-loss reality programs.

By contrast, when President George W. Bush spoke about immigration in 2006, all the major networks aired his address live.

This is unacceptable—but we still have time to change it.

The CEOs of NBC, CBS, ABC, and FOX need to hear from the public that it's shameful for them not to air this Oval Office address. Can you call their offices or call them out on Twitter—and let them know that Americans deserve to hear their president address the nation?

Their phone numbers and Twitter handles are:

• ABC: 212-456-7777; @abcnetwork
• CBS: 212-975-4321; @cbs
• NBC: 212-664-4444; @nbc
  
• FOX: 310-369-3553; @foxtv

If you call, tell them, "I believe it's the public duty that comes with public airwaves to air a presidential address on important issues—such as the speech on immigration tonight."

If you'd rather use Twitter, here's a sample tweet:

".@nbcnews, you're using our public airwaves. Please air the @BarackObama speech on #immigration tonight."

President Obama will speak briefly at 8 p.m. ET tonight about the critical issue of immigration reform. Clearly, the network execs don't think that this warrants public attention. But they are wrong. Here's why:

• President Obama will speak to an issue that affects millions of people directly, tens of millions of their family members, and all Americans in some way. This is exactly why we have public airwaves.


• The networks have a history of airing primetime Oval Office addresses by Republican and Democratic presidents. It is part of their public responsibility.


• We're talking about a 15-minute speech. Cut a few commercial breaks, and the networks wouldn't even have to change their programming schedule.

When our elected leader plans to speak to the nation live from the Oval Office, it should be our decision whether to tune in—not the decision of a few executives whose networks profit off of our public airwaves.

Their phone numbers and Twitter handles are: 

• ABC: 212-456-7777; @abcnetwork
• CBS: 212-975-4321; @cbs
• NBC: 212-664-4444; @nbc
  
• FOX: 310-369-3553; @foxtv

Call the networks now—or use Twitter to call them out—and demand that the networks push back their programming 15 minutes so Americans can listen to this message from their president.

Thanks for all you do.

–Anna, Maria, Matt, Nick, and the rest of the team

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