NBC and Fox News said in separate statements on Monday that their networks will no longer air the Trump campaign’s racist anti-immigrant advertisement. NBC was first to announce its decision, doing so after a backlash over its decision to show the 30-second spot during Sunday Night Football.
“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, said in a statement.
The advertisement aims to motivate Republican turnout by vilifying a group of migrants walking toward the US southern border, wrongly portraying them as invaders and criminals.Many viewers were stunned when it aired during “Sunday Night Football,” which is one of the most watched programs on television, regularly averaging more than 10 million viewers.
This week’s game likely had a particularly big audience as it featured a highly-anticipated matchup between two of the league’s premier quarterbacks, Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers.
CNN had previously determined that the Trump campaign’s advertisement was racist and declined to sell airtime for it.
On Saturday, Donald Trump Jr. complained on Twitter that CNN “refused to run” the advertisement.
A CNN spokesperson responded in a tweet, saying, “CNN has made it abundantly clear in its editorial coverage that this ad is racist. When presented with an opportunity to be paid to take a version of this ad, we declined. Those are the facts.”
