It's been a rough year for CNN, what with its awful ratings, the departure of its president, and that whole Supreme Court health-care slip-up, but the network got a break in its competition with MSNBC and Fox News as President Obama agreed to an exclusive interview. Politico's Dylan Byers got the press release early, announcing that the documentaries CNN is producing ahead of the political conventions would feature not only interviews with Mitt and Ann Romney, but with President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, neither of whom will be gracing rival MSNBC in its comparable pre-convention documentaries. "Obama campaign provided MSNBC's Chris Matthews with Vice President Joe Biden," Byers reports. But the network isn't using its exclusive access to the president to go head-to-head with MSNBC, Byers notes: "The Romney documentary will air at 8 p.m on Sunday, August 26. The Obama documentary will air at 8 p.m. on Monday, September 3 -- they will not conflict with the MSNBC documentaries."

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Adam Martin