I agree with pretty much all that.
I think our disagreement hinges around the idea that politics plays a larger part in a production idea than money. Outside of the 1 post after our discussion began I don't believe anyone was trying to say that politics trumped money. We might disagree on just what the importance of politics is in this scenario, but the idea that the political leanings of a program or movie would cause a network to air a known financial loss is a bit absurd.
NCB, CBS, or even Fox News isn't going to air something that they know is going to lose them money.
As big a douche as Immelt may or may not be, he's not going to consider airing a financial albatross.