Talk about too little, too late: Fox News and NBC have announced they won’t run the ugliest ad of the year, Donald Trump’s vicious bit tying asylum-seekers to violent crime … but they waited until the day before Election Day to come to that high-minded position. And in NBC’s case, the decision only came after the network took heavy criticism for running the ad during Sunday Night Football, with its huge national audience.
"After further review we recognize the insensitive nature of the ad and have decided to cease airing it across our properties as soon as possible," a spokesperson for NBC said in a statement.
Fox soon followed suit.
"Upon further review, Fox News pulled the ad yesterday and it will not appear on either Fox News Channel or Fox Business Network," Marianne Gambelli, Fox News' president of advertisement sales, told CNN in a statement.
One question: IT TOOK FURTHER REVIEW? What exactly does a first viewing of the ad not tell you? Well, okay, if you watch the ad you may not know that the immigrant shown who was convicted of killing two sheriff’s deputies was released by Donald Trump’s favorite former law enforcement officer, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, after a drug arrest, and re-entered the country under George W. Bush—quite the illustration of Democratic immigration policies, there. But the ad, with its claim that a single criminal is representative of a group traveling on foot to escape poverty and violence and including many, many children and parents of children, was obviously racist enough for CNN to reject it right off the bat. The fact that former KKK leader David Duke celebrated the ad might also have served as a small clue.
Facebook also pulled the ad, saying that “This ad violates Facebook's advertising policy against sensational content so we are rejecting it. While the video is allowed to be posted on Facebook, it cannot receive paid distribution.” Again, this move didn’t come until Monday.
Donald Trump’s campaign manager raged on Twitter: “So, @NBCNews @CNN @facebook have chosen to stand with those ILLEGALLY IN THIS COUNTRY,” conveniently leaving Fox News off of his list and mysteriously failing to mention that the many of the migrants in the caravan are coming to apply for asylum, which is their legal right.
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