Media

Fox rejects Biden request to not run Trump campaign ad

by Joe Concha - 10/04/19 11:42 AM ET

Fox News is rejecting a request from Joe Biden’s presidential campaign that it not air an ad from President Trump’s campaign that the former vice president’s team says “spreads false, definitively debunked conspiracy theories.”

A Fox News spokesperson pushed back against the Biden campaign in a statement to The Hill.

“We are not in the business of censoring ads from candidates on either side of the aisle,” the statement reads. “Vice President Joe Biden has a standing invitation to appear on any of our platforms.”

{mosads}In a letter to the Fox News general counsel, Biden campaign manager Greg Schultz pressed Fox to reject the ad.

“Though the Trump campaign is prepared to fabricate outright lies, your station’s airwaves should not be used to disseminate them,” Schultz wrote.

“We are putting you on notice about the absolute falsity of the advertisement’s claims, and we expect that you will reject it. Please consider this letter a standing request that you reject any advertisement containing similar claims, regardless whether the Trump campaign or a third-party group seeks to place it.”

The ad features a narrator claiming that Biden had thwarted an investigation into his son’s work at a Ukrainian energy company. It also alleges that Democrats seek to “steal the election.”

Trump is at the center of an impeachment inquiry over his call for Ukraine to investigate Biden, who during the Obama administration pressed for the firing of a Ukraine prosecutor who had drawn the ire of the U.S. government and its allies in the West. There has been no evidence to suggest that Biden’s actions were tied to his son’s work.

In addition to Fox News, Trump’s Biden ad has run on MSNBC and other outlets. But CNN rejected the ad, which also characterizes CNN’s Jim Acosta, Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon, and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow as “media lapdogs.”

“CNN is rejecting the ad, as it does not meet our advertising standards,” a network spokesperson said Thursday. “Specifically, in addition to disparaging CNN and its journalists, the ad makes assertions that have been proven demonstrably false by various news outlets, including CNN.”

The Hill has reached out to MSNBC for comment.

Fox News has aired anti-Trump campaign ads by billionaire Tom Steyer, a 2020 Democratic candidate, who claims in the ad that the former real estate mogul “failed as a businessman” and is “a fraud and a failure.”

On Sept. 29, the Biden campaign also called on broadcast news outlets including ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN and Fox News to stop booking Trump’s personal attorney, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.