NBC ran a Trump ad CNN said was too racist to show
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
President Trump's final television ad of this campaign season has been widely condemned for its inaccuracy, fear-mongering, and bigotry. It was rejected for air time by CNN but ran on NBC Sunday evening.
CNN explained the decision to refuse the ad on Twitter Saturday, noting the network "has made it abundantly clear in its editorial coverage that this ad is racist" and so refused "to be paid to take a version" to the public. (Why Trump would wish to run his ad on a network for which he regularly professes deep animosity is another question.)
The next day, however, a shortened version of the spot aired during NBC's Sunday Night Football. The edited clip did not include a false claim about the circumstances under which Luis Bracamontes, an undocumented immigrant sentenced to death this February for killing two police officers, was permitted to stay in the United States. However, it retained a false claim that a higher population of immigrants leads to higher crime rates.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
NBC did not respond to a New York Times request for comment.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
-
Buddhist monks’ US walk for peaceUnder the Radar Crowds have turned out on the roads from California to Washington and ‘millions are finding hope in their journey’
-
American universities are losing ground to their foreign counterpartsThe Explainer While Harvard is still near the top, other colleges have slipped
-
How to navigate dating apps to find ‘the one’The Week Recommends Put an end to endless swiping and make real romantic connections
-
Judge rejects California’s ICE mask ban, OKs ID lawSpeed Read Federal law enforcement agents can wear masks but must display clear identification
-
Lawmakers say Epstein files implicate 6 more menSpeed Read The Trump department apparently blacked out the names of several people who should have been identified
-
Japan’s Takaichi cements power with snap election winSpeed Read President Donald Trump congratulated the conservative prime minister
-
Trump sues IRS for $10B over tax record leaksSpeed Read The president is claiming ‘reputational and financial harm’ from leaks of his tax information between 2018 and 2020
-
Trump, Senate Democrats reach DHS funding dealSpeed Read The deal will fund most of the government through September and the Department of Homeland Security for two weeks
-
Fed holds rates steady, bucking Trump pressureSpeed Read The Federal Reserve voted to keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged
-
Judge slams ICE violations amid growing backlashSpeed Read ‘ICE is not a law unto itself,’ said a federal judge after the agency violated at least 96 court orders
-
Rep. Ilhan Omar attacked with unknown liquidSpeed Read This ‘small agitator isn’t going to intimidate me from doing my work’
