Lindell pulls MyPillow ads from Fox News for refusing to air election fraud commercial
Thomas McDonald
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Fox News has declined to air MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s advertisements for his upcoming election fraud special called “Cyber Symposium,” causing him to pull all his ads on the network.
Lindell’s “Cyber Symposium” aims to detail how the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” from former President Donald Trump.
“MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell tells me that Fox News is “stalling” and “reluctant” to accept his ad buy on the network to advertise for his “cyber symposium” event in mid-August. Newsmax and OAN have agreed to run the symposium ads,” tweeted Zachary Petrizzo, staff writer for Salon.
MyPillow spent $50 million to advertise on Fox News in 2020 and has spent roughly $19 million so far this year, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Part of Fox’s reluctance to air Lindell’s election fraud advertisements stems from two lawsuits the network faced in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election by voting machine manufacturers. The lawsuits claimed that Fox allegedly used defamatory comments about their products. The network defended their coverage as protected under the First Amendment.
Fox released a statement calling it “unfortunate” that Lindell “has chosen to pause his commercial time on FOX News given the level of success he’s experienced in building his brand through advertising on the number one cable news network.”
Reactions to Fox News’s refusal to air Lindell’s election fraud commercials were widespread across social media.
Sean Davis, the co-founder of the Federalist, tweeted two headlines. One describing Fox News’ decision to not air Lindell’s ad for “Cyber Symposium” and another, showing Fox News deciding to air an ad for Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider.
Conservative activist Michael Burkes, who has over 217,000 followers on Twitter, said, “Fox has LOST IT. Mike is a PATRIOT!”
“Just watched the Mike Lindell ad that Fox refused to play. Media is lying. He makes NO CLAIMS about the election in it. It is a promo for his event, and includes a spot for FrankSpeech. That’s it,” said conservative commentator Jack Posobiec.
“I stand with MIke Lindell and Donald J Trump, not Fox News,” said Brigitte Gabriel.
“With MyPillow Guy Mike Lindell pulling his ads from Fox News, this seems like the PERFECT time to remind everyone that 38% of Tucker Carlson’s ad revenue comes from MyPillow alone. Excuse me while I f—ing HOWL,” said someone else.