On Thursday evening, President Obama took to the airwaves to present his plan for immigration reform to the American people. Unfortunately, many of the American people were not able to find him.

At 8pm, instead of seeing the president outlining his long-awaited overhaul of one of the country’s most hotly debated issues, ABC viewers were treated to an episode of Grey’s Anatomy. Those tuning in to CBS were presented with an episode of The Big Bang Theory; Fox network viewers saw Bones; and viewers tuning to NBC were be able to enjoy The Biggest Loser: Glory Days.

Thursdays are big nights for the networks, and Grey’s Anatomy, The Big Bang Theory, Bones and even The Biggest Loser are ratings heavyweights. A speech by the president is bad for ratings – and anything bad for ratings is loathed by advertisers.

Alternatives to the speech Photograph: Guardian US

The White House can make a formal request to networks for airtime. Such requests are pretty much always granted. But as CNN’s Brian Stelter reported on Wednesday, after the administration put out feelers to the networks and determined that they were reluctant to hand over such airtime, it did not make a formal request.

The Spanish-language network Univision carried the address – in fact, it interrupted its coverage of the Latin Grammys, a huge ratings night, for the president. Univision confirmed to the Guardian that unlike ABC, NBC, CBS or Fox, it had received an official request from the White House to carry Obama’s speech.

Cable news channels like Fox News and CNN carried the address, and some of the networks carried it on their digital platforms, but a network insider told Politico on Thursday the speech’s content was too “overtly political” to broadcast.

The move not to make formal requests to the four largest English-language networks comes at a low point in relations between the White House and the press pool, many of whom feel shut out by the Obama administration.

The networks, especially the so-called “big three” of CBS, NBC and ABC, used to be the only conduit between president and people. But the Obama administration has become adept at using other outlets, such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, to get its message across.

On Wednesday, for example, the announcement that Obama would address the media on immigration was made not to the press pool or in a briefing, but in a video posted to Facebook.



In a snappish exchange at the White House, the media responded. “You said announcing this on Facebook was effective because [the president] reached 1.5 million people,” George Condon of the National Journal asked Obama’s press secretary, Josh Earnest. “You believe that … you reached more people than if you had announced it to the wires, the networks and the press corps?”



“The good news is that the wires and the networks and the press corps are all on Facebook,” Earnest shot back, sharply. “And I noticed that even one of the networks, shortly after the video was posted to Facebook, actually broadcast it on their network.

“So the good news, George, is that we don’t have to choose.”