Fun fact: The resolution also applies to the networks’ subsidiaries, CNN Espanol and Telemundo, which sounds pretty horrific to me. And to the DNC, I’ll bet.

Who cares?

“We’re done putting up with this nonsense,” he said. “CNN and NBC will just have to watch on their competitors’ network … The media overplayed their hand this time.”…

Priebus said that reports that actor Alec Baldwin could get an MSNBC show during primetime validates his complaint that NBC News is not truly separate from the NBC Entertainment division…

“We don’t have time for the media’s games, and really it goes beyond the debates,” he said. “They want to make a family discussion look like division.”…

The formal RNC resolution said “these programming decisions are an attempt to show political favoritism and put a thumb on the scales for the next presidential election.” It also noted that Robert Greenblatt, chairman of NBC Entertainment, contributed the maximum amount to Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign committee, contributed $25,000 to Obama’s 2012 Victory Fund and this year gave $10,000 to the Democratic National Committee.

Show of hands among our conservative readership: Who thinks that ABC and CBS, which are still good to go, are appreciably less biased against the right than the now-banned NBC and CNN are? Wasn’t it George Stephanopoulos, an ABC anchor and former Clinton apparatchik, who kicked off the “war on women” garbage last year by asking Romney that out-of-left-field question about contraception? Let’s say, purely to appease the RNC, CNN decides it’ll throw together a documentary about the GOP nominee too once he’s chosen. Will that suddenly make CNN copacetic again? Here’s a compromise: Let CNN run its dumb Hillary hagiography on the condition that Jake Tapper gets to moderate the GOP debate. That’ll get you a fair result more than running into ABC’s and CBS’s arms will.

The RNC’s goal here isn’t to strike a blow against media bias. That’s window-dressing for grassroots conservatives, just as the whispers about letting Rush Limbaugh host a debate were. The point is to cut down the number of debates, which will reduce the opportunities for strong establishment candidates to make embarrassing gaffes and reduce the opportunities for strong tea-party candidates to leap in the polls with winning debate performances. And even on those terms, the “ban” is feeble. As Dave Weigel notes, the text of the resolution doesn’t specify a penalty for candidates who defy the RNC and choose to participate in an NBC/CNN debate. It simply says that the RNC won’t be a co-sponsor. The RNC could impose a penalty later but docking delegates from any candidate who chose to take his chances with NBC or CNN moderators would only end up alienating some of his supporters, which risks Republicans staying home for the general election. It’s an empty threat.