People will be forgiven if they think Big Media moves in lockstep when it comes to the Clintons. Just two months ago, both CNN Films and NBC Entertainment announced almost simultaneously to great fanfare that they were producing projects on Hillary Clinton.

CNN planned a documentary on her life by filmmaker Charles Ferguson, while NBC said it was preparing a mini-series “docudrama” starring actress Diane Lane. Yesterday, within hours of each other both companies announced they were canceling their projects under intense pressure from both Clinton aides and the Republican National Committee, which announced it wouldn’t co-sponsor 2016 debates with any media outlet sponsoring what it called “promotion vehicles” for a Hillary candidacy.

Ironically, the proposed maker of CNN’s documentary says he became convinced after initial contacts with Clinton aides that they were clearly intent on blocking his project. “They knew this wasn’t a whitewash,” Ferguson told the New York Times. “And my very strong impression was that anything other than a whitewash is something they don’t want to support.”

In a Huffington Post piece that he wrote, Ferguson detailed some of the stonewalling he encountered:

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. Not even journalists who want access, which can easily be taken away. I even sensed potential difficulty in licensing archival footage from CBN (Pat Robertson) and from Fox. After approaching well over a hundred people, only two persons who had ever dealt with Mrs. Clinton would agree to an on-camera interview, and I suspected that even they would back out.

Hillary Clinton remains one of the most fascinating and most talked-about people in American politics. But trying to explore her controversial past in depth remains a tricky proposition, and the Clinton machine remains ever vigilant in protecting her image and has no qualms about employing real pressure in doing so.