Fox News Axes Dem Mega-Donor’s Impeachment Ad After Trump Tweets

Tom Steyer speaks at a rally calling for the impeachment of President Donald Trump in San Francisco, Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2017. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Tom Steyer speaks at a rally calling for the impeachment of President Donald Trump in San Francisco, Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2017. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
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Tom Steyer wants President Trump to be impeached. Fox News decided to impeach his new ad instead.

On the same day that Fox News first ran an advertisement funded by Steyer, a Democratic mega-donor, President Donald Trump tweeted about Steyer, calling him “wacky” and “totally unhinged.”

Just four days later, the outlet stopped playing the advertisement. “Due to the strong negative reaction to their ad by our viewers, we could not in good conscience take their money,” Jack Abernethy, Fox News co-president, said in a statement obtained by TPM on Monday.

Steyer, through his attorneys, said he was not given an explanation for the cancellation of the advertisement.

Trump likely saw the ad for the first time when it aired on “Fox and Friends.” The early morning program is known as Trump’s favorite source of news, and Trump tweeted a thank you to “Fox and Friends” for its “really great job and show!” just minutes after the Steyer tweet.

While Fox claims the audience reaction is what sparked the removal of the advertisement, Steyer’s lawyer sent a letter to Abernethy, claiming Fox News is censoring a private citizen in order to appease the President.

“It is no coincidence that the cancellation of the advertisement, in the second week of its run, came on the heels of a tweet from President Trump, criticizing the spot and Mr. Steyer personally. The only plausible explanation seems to be that Fox News capitulated to political pressure from the Trump administration itself,” Steyer’s lawyer Brad Deutsch said in a letter to Abernethy on Nov. 3, which was obtained by The Washington Post. “President Trump has threatened retaliation against broadcasters who provide him with negative coverage and Fox News appears to have answered these threats with servility.”

In the video, Steyer outlines all of Trump’s “dangerous” moves as President thus far, and said that a Republican Congress “once impeached a President for far less.”

“Yet today people in Congress and his own administration know that this President is a clear and present danger who’s mentally unstable and armed with nuclear weapons, and they do nothing,” he said.

Read the letter Steyer’s lawyer sent Fox News below:

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Notable Replies

  1. Just four days later, the outlet stopped playing the advertisement. “Due to the strong negative reaction to their ad by our viewers, we could not in good conscience take their money,” Jack Abernethy, Fox News co-president, said in a statement obtained by TPM on Monday.

    FFS, you’re FUX News, you have no conscience, morals, scruples, integrity, honor, fill in the ___________, etc.

    You’re just bottom feeding media whores.

  2. Just four days later, the outlet stopped playing the advertisement. “Due to the strong negative reaction to their ad by our viewers, we could not in good conscience take their money,” Jack Abernethy, Fox News co-president, said in a statement obtained by TPM on Monday.

    Oh, so Fox is doing a good, humanitarian thing. Not taking the billionaire’s money is a matter of good conscience. I’m sure everyone at Fox has now had the proper conscience cleansing so they can continue their programming to prevent people from getting affordable health insurance, to prevent commonsense gun regulations, to prevent immigrants from coming to the country and all their other programming that might cause real human beings to have pangs of conscience.

  3. They don’t even care about money, they’re such committed propagandists for the GOP. Without some sort of adjustment they’re following their audience into the grave.

  4. Don’t worry. Faux News will have another 3-5 articles this week about fascist leftists “censoring” asshats like Richard Spencer and their “efforts to destroy free speech with political correctness” etc. etc.

  5. America, meet authoritarianism.

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