CNN Refuses To Air Pro-Trump Ad
CNN has refused to air an ad supporting President Donald Trump’s re-election, claiming the ad’s statement that Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden will raise taxes on the middle class is false.
The ad was also rejected for its characterization of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as pro-socialist, according to The Hill.
The America First Action ad said Biden “sided with socialists,” and shows images of Pelosi and Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.
The ad also said Biden will “raise taxes on the middle class” and that “his liberal agenda will cost millions of jobs.”
The ad was rejected, an account executive at Warner Media said to The Hill in an email, because it was not fair to Biden and Pelosi.
“WarnerMedia Commercial Clearance has not accepted America First Action’s advertisement ‘We Are America’ for its networks as the ad does not meet its commercial clearance standards,” the email said.
“Specifically, the ad asserts that Biden will raise taxes on the middle class. That claim is not adequately substantiated and has been judged false by independent fact-checkers. The advertisement also mischaracterizes Nancy Pelosi as a socialist,” the executive said.
An attorney representing America First Action said the action was censoring political speech that was “at the very least a matter worthy of debate.”
“While AFA’s opponents are, of course, permitted to purchase air time to try to rebut AFA’s claims, it is not the job of your network to censor a statement that is factually supported and relates to an important issue in the upcoming election,” Stephen Kenny of Jones Day wrote.
Biden has said he will repeal the tax cuts enacted by Trump in 2017, but claims that no one with an income under $400,000 a year will feel any pain.
Kenny wrote that some analysts believe there will be an impact on middle-class taxpayers who will earn less on their investments and could face lower wages because of Biden’s proposed corporate tax increases.
“These are important policy debates that should be aired in the public square in advance of the election,” Kenny wrote.
Kenny said the label “socialist” is “often used in political discourse to signify generally a set of left-leaning political positions.”
“Pelosi favors tuition-free community college, universal subsidized child care, and universal health care,” he wrote. “The ad does not imply she advocates for a more aggressive strain of ‘socialism’ whereby the government controls all means of production. Instead, the ad describes accurately where her positions on key issues place her on the political spectrum.”
America First and its supporters expressed outrage at CNN’s action.
CNN is ACTIVELY censoring our ad. https://t.co/tGm0s414Tr
— America First (@AmericaFirstPAC) October 27, 2020
CNN’s corporate network is ACTIVELY censoring America First’s new ad that is factually supported and relates to an important issue in the upcoming election.https://t.co/cR4Cj0L1NE
— America First (@AmericaFirstPAC) October 27, 2020
Here’s the ad CNN doesn’t want you to see.
“CNN won’t run pro-Trump ad warning Biden will raise taxes on middle class” https://t.co/2z5SJiai6X…https://t.co/p0HNZ65Q1d
— Nick Trainer (@NicholasTrainer) October 27, 2020
America First Action said the ad was deemed appropriate to run by ABC, AMC, Cooking, CBS, Comcast, DIY, Discovery, ESPN, Food Network, Fox, HGTV, History, Lifetime and The Weather Channel.
However, it will not be running on CNN or its Turner Broadcast cousins, including TNT, TBS and TCM.
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