This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/05/us/politics/nbc-caravan-advertisement.html

The article has changed 10 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 8 Version 9
NBC, Fox and Facebook Stop Running Trump Caravan Ad Criticized as Racist Even Fox News Stops Running Trump Caravan Ad Criticized as Racist
(about 5 hours later)
An ad created by President Trump’s campaign committee tying together Democrats, a notorious murderer and a caravan of asylum-seeking migrants in Mexico embroiled NBC in controversy overnight, prompting the network to backpedal and pull it from the air. Major television networks and Facebook have taken the unusual step of rejecting an inflammatory ad by President Trump’s political team that effectively closes a fiercely fought midterm campaign with a message portraying immigrants as a violent threat.
Critics had denounced the ad as false and inflammatory, and CNN had refused to broadcast a longer version, calling it racist. But NBC put it up during the ratings giant “Sunday Night Football.” The 30-second political spot, which mirrors the president’s apocalyptic warnings about a caravan of asylum seekers in Mexico, was widely denounced as racist and misleading after Mr. Trump shared a longer version of it last week.
“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,” NBCUniversal said in a statement. NBC and Facebook, both of which had run the ad over the weekend, reversed course after a backlash on Monday and announced that the commercial would be removed, saying it fell short of their in-house advertising standards. CNN had refused to air the ad from the start, calling it “racist.”
Even Fox News, which has made the caravan a staple of its midterm elections coverage, announced that it had decided on Sunday to stop running it, and Facebook removed the ad, which had been targeted at users in key electoral battlegrounds, like Florida and Arizona. Even Fox News, which has made warnings about the migrant caravan a staple of its prime time coverage of the midterms, felt compelled to distance itself from the ad. The network’s president of ad sales, Marianne Gambelli, said in a statement that the network had stopped airing it on Sunday. “It will not appear on either Fox News Channel or Fox Business Network,” she wrote.
Mr. Trump, speaking to reporters on Monday before boarding Air Force One, said he was unaware of the controversy. Mr. Trump, for his part, said he was unaware of the controversy.
“You’re telling me something I don’t know about,” he said. “We have a lot of ads and they certainly are effective, based on the numbers that we’re seeing.” “You’re telling me something I don’t know about,” he told reporters on Monday before boarding Air Force One. “We have a lot of ads, and they certainly are effective, based on the numbers that we’re seeing.”
Mr. Trump also dismissed the complaints over the ad. Asked about critics who called the ad offensive, Mr. Trump replied: “A lot of things are offensive. Your questions are offensive a lot of times so, you know.”
“A lot of things are offensive,” he said. “Your questions are offensive a lot of time, so, you know.” Divisive, over-the-top political ads have been a hallmark of this year’s age-of-rage midterm battle, as candidates across the country accused their opponents of being terrorists, criminals, and in one case, deserving of a golf spike to the face.
[Read on how Trump-fed conspiracy theories about the migrant caravan intersect with deadly hatred.]
The 30-second ad that aired on NBC was paid for by Donald J. Trump for President and stirred fear about a migrant caravan of asylum-seekers slowly making its way through Mexico that is still hundreds of miles from the United States border. It tied Luis Bracamontes, an undocumented Mexican immigrant who was convicted of murdering two Sacramento sheriff’s deputies in 2014, to the thousands of migrants who are fleeing Central America, even though Mr. Bracamontes is not known to have any association with the caravan.
“Dangerous illegal criminals like cop-killer Luis Bracamontes don’t care about our laws,” the ad said.
It was a shorter version of an ad that the president shared on Twitter last week, which falsely claimed that Democrats let Mr. Bracamontes “into our country” and “let him stay.” In fact, he had been deported during the Clinton and Bush administrations, but repeatedly made his way back. That longer version of the ad, which Mr. Trump featured as a pinned tweet atop his Twitter page, has been viewed more than 6.4 million times.
CNN dedicated substantial editorial coverage to the longer ad, sometimes showing clips as anchors and chyrons declared it “racist.”
The shorter version did not include the false claim about Democrats, but it still drew a direct connection from immigrants to crime, a tactic the president has repeatedly used. (Many studies have shown that immigrants do not drive an increase in crime.)
Before the ad aired during a marquee matchup between the New England Patriots and the Green Bay Packers, NBCUniversal’s standards and practices department reviewed it and concluded that it was in keeping with the network’s guidelines, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The guidelines, available online, contain a section for “controversial issue advertising,” which states that “advertisements generally will be accepted if there is a basis for the claims and such claims fall within the bounds of reasonable debate.”
The guidelines also allow the network to reject an ad if it deems its content “grossly offensive (e.g., on racial, religious or ethnic grounds).” That wasn’t considered to be the case after the department’s original review.
The ad aired once on NBC, during “Sunday Night Football,” and three times on MSNBC, a spokesman for NBCUniversal said.
It quickly drew widespread condemnation. Debra Messing, an actress who plays Grace in NBC’s “Will and Grace,” protested the network’s decision in a tweet addressed to her show’s fans.
“I want you to know that I am ashamed that my network aired this disgusting racist ad,” she wrote. “It is the antithesis of everything I personally believe in, and what, I believe, our show is all about.”
Senior NBCUniversal executives reviewed the ad again and decided it should be pulled, said the person familiar with the matter.
Fox News had reached a similar decision the day before, Marianne Gambelli, the network’s president of ad sales, said in a statement on Monday. “Upon further review, Fox News pulled the ad yesterday and it will not appear on either Fox News Channel or Fox Business Network,” she said.
Facebook took action Monday, saying the ad violates the company’s advertising policy “against sensational content.” Users may still share the video on their pages, Facebook said.
Those decisions stood in stark contrast to CNN, which publicly responded last week when Donald Trump Jr. criticized the network for refusing to run it.
“CNN has made it abundantly clear in its editorial coverage that this ad is racist,” the network’s public relations account posted on Twitter. “When presented with an opportunity to be paid to take a version of this ad, we declined.”
[As the midterm elections near, read about how Trump is bringing up immigration as an issue.][As the midterm elections near, read about how Trump is bringing up immigration as an issue.]
Mr. Trump has used the specter of the caravan crossing the United States border as a central campaign theme, describing it as an “invasion of our country” to stoke anxieties about immigration. He has ordered more than 5,000 active-duty troops to the border in preparation for the migrants’ expected arrival in the coming weeks. But Mr. Trump’s ad, which aired on NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,” the top-rated program, sparked a particular outcry — and a debate over the limits of paid political speech hours before voters head to the polls.
The actress Debra Messing, whose show “Will and Grace” airs on NBC, wrote on Twitter that she was “ashamed” that her network “aired this disgusting racist ad.” The film director Judd Apatow, who has made movies at NBC’s corporate sibling Universal Studios, called it “a low point in the history of NBC.”
The N.F.L. issued a statement disavowing any knowledge that the Trump commercial had been slated to run during its premiere game of the week. “The N.F.L. played no role in the airing of the spot,” a league spokesman, Brian McCarthy, said. “The N.F.L. has no approval rights regarding campaign ads.”
Supporters of Mr. Trump seized on the rejection to rally voters against news organizations and tech companies that they argue are biased against the president.
“The #FakeNewsMedia and #PaloAltoMafia are trying to control what you see and how you think,” Brad Parscale, Mr. Trump’s campaign manager, wrote on Twitter. (Mr. Parscale did not mention that Fox News had also removed the commercial from its broadcasts.)
Alex Castellanos, a Republican strategist who has advised several presidential candidates, including a group supporting Mr. Trump, said he “can’t remember an ad, ever, that was denied airtime because of its point of view, because it was called offensive or racist.”
He also said that the Trump campaign could benefit.
“The day before the election, there’s not enough time to air the ad and have it make a difference,” Mr. Castellanos said. “But if it becomes controversial, a lot of people will see it who otherwise would not.”
The rejected commercial features footage of an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, Luis Bracamontes, bragging about his murder of two California police officers in 2014. Ominous music plays, followed by images of the caravan that originated in Central America.
“Dangerous illegal criminals like cop-killer Luis Bracamontes don’t care about our laws,” the ad said. The final onscreen message: “Stop the caravan. Vote Republican.”
On Monday, NBCUniversal said that “after further review” the ad would no longer be shown because of its “insensitive nature.” The network had previously approved the ad, which aired during a matchup between the New England Patriots and the Green Bay Packers, and several times on the cable news channel MSNBC.
Facebook, which had been paid by the Donald J. Trump for President campaign to target the spot in electoral battlegrounds like Florida and Arizona, issued a similar note. “This ad violates Facebook’s advertising policy against sensational content so we are rejecting it,” a spokesman said, adding that users were still free to post the video on their personal pages.
Many studies have shown that immigrants do not drive an increase in crime. And Mr. Bracamontes is not known to have any association with the caravan of migrants walking north.
He also features in a longer version of the ad that the president posted on Twitter last week, which falsely claimed that Democrats let him “into our country” and “let him stay.” In fact, Mr. Bracamontes had been deported during the Clinton and Bush administrations, but repeatedly made his way back.
The 53-second version, which Mr. Trump has featured atop his Twitter page, has been viewed about 6.5 million times.
CNN dedicated substantial coverage to the longer ad, with anchors and onscreen graphics declaring it misleading and “racist.” That prompted a rebuke from the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., who told his Twitter followers that CNN “won’t talk about real threats that don’t suit their agenda.”
He added: “Remember this on Tuesday. #vote.”
[Read about how Trump-fed conspiracy theories about the migrant caravan intersect with deadly hatred.]
Mr. Trump has made the caravan a central campaign theme, describing it as an “invasion of our country” in an effort to stoke anxieties about immigration. He has ordered more than 5,000 active-duty troops to the border in preparation for the migrants’ expected arrival in the coming weeks.
The caravan was once said to have 7,000 people, but more recent estimates put the number at fewer than 3,500.The caravan was once said to have 7,000 people, but more recent estimates put the number at fewer than 3,500.
Jason Kint, the chief executive of Digital Content Next, a trade group that represents entertainment and news organizations, said the reaction from the networks and Facebook could end up amplifying Mr. Trump’s closing argument, rather than smothering it.
Because of the controversy, he said, the ad was “spreading like wildfire — for free.”