Fox News was excoriated last week on twitter for running California billionaire and Democrat Tom Steyer’s NeedToImpeach Donald Trump advertisement on its channel. Viewers threatened to stop watching. Now, Fox has capitulated to its outraged audience and conceivably to Donald Trump himself and taken the ad down. Newsweek:
“The only plausible explanation seems to be that Fox News capitulated to political pressure from the Trump administration itself,” his [Steyer’s] lawyers write. “President Trump has threatened retaliation against broadcasters who provide him with negative coverage, and Fox News appears to have answered these threats with servility.”
Apparently Fox News calculated out how much they would gain from the ad, which was a nice chunk of change indeed, $11Million and how much they would get flamed by viewers, and apparently the latter consideration won the day.
Fox News confirmed it had pulled the ad. “Due to the strong negative reaction to their ad by our viewers, we could not in good conscience take their money,” the channel’s co-president Jack Abernethy said.
“If Fox News is siding with Trump and trying to silence us, they must be afraid of what we have to say,” Steyer said in a statement. “It shows no respect for democracy.”
Steyer’s lawyers also accused Fox of breaching contract and failing to notify them of the decision to pull the ad, which was taken off air on the Fox News channel Tuesday but is still running on other Fox network channels.
So much for fairness in broadcasting, presenting both sides, all that. This is a minor setback for Steyer and a foreseeable one. Steyer’s still making excellent progress with his campaign. 1.4 million people have signed a petition calling for Donald Trump’s impeachment and that ain’t hay.
If you missed the ad first time, here it is.