Left-wing news media outlets publicly lobbied Facebook to censor a political ad at a critical time for undecided voters, ultimately shaming the company Monday into refusing ad buys from President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign.
Watch the censored ad below, as shared by Trump’s campaign manager Brad Parscale.
Our new ad starts tonight. Take a look at this ad running nationally for a 1.5MM dollar buy. BUT, @CNN will not let us buy on their network. Do they not want to show REAL news? @donlemon pic.twitter.com/QyeiMDQG1R
— Brad Parscale (@parscale) November 2, 2018
Noah Shachtman, the Daily Beast’s editor in chief, derided the ad as “racist”:
Welcome to @facebook, the advertising platform that features ads too racist for cable. https://t.co/KJpSPL2ZIw
— Noah Shachtman (@NoahShachtman) November 5, 2018
Justin Miller, an editor at the Daily Beast, similarly branded the ad “racist”:
Trump ad too racist for TV networks is bought and paid for on Facebook, @lachlan reports https://t.co/D9xkIqT3BP
— Justin Miller (@justinjm1) November 5, 2018
The Daily Beast’s Lachlan Markay led his outlet’s campaign towards Facebook:
Per Facebook data, the Trump campaign has spent between $25,000 and $85,000 promoting the ad since yesterday, and it's been viewed by between 2.5 million and 4.1 million FB users in AZ and FL https://t.co/knGvQY836F
— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) November 5, 2018
CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan echoed the call for political censorship:
The Trump ad that CNN said it wouldn't air because it was racist, and that NBC pulled this morning, is still running on Facebook right now. https://t.co/IjQbY5DldK pic.twitter.com/hcuIRSiyiq
— Donie O'Sullivan (@donie) November 5, 2018
CNN and its news media allies deployed a similar campaign earlier this year, lobbying for the de-platforming of Alex Jones and Infowars from Google and its subsidiary YouTube, Facebook, Apple’s Spotify, and Twitter.
Facebook pulled the ad on Monday, telling Breitbart News the ad violated its “community standards” policies by “dehumanizing and denigrating entire groups of people.”
Last week, CNN refused to accept ad purchases for the 30-second spot, deriding the ad as “racist.” NBC similarly censored the ad.
Fox News Channel followed suit on Monday, refusing to air the ad.
Follow Robert Kraychik on Twitter.
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