Fox news, wimps?

The New York Times > Business > Media & Advertising > The Left Asked to Speak to the Right, But a Gatekeeper Wouldn't Hear of It:

Fox News Channel, the highest-rated cable news network in the country, arrives this week at the Republican National Convention with an opportunity to serve up ample red meat for its core constituency.


A growing number of advertisers would like a piece of that audience, but The Nation, the left-leaning political magazine, will not be among them. Ten days ago, the ad agency for The Nation sent a 60-second commercial to the cable network promoting its brand of political news and commentary as free of White House influence and corporate agendas.


"Nobody owns The Nation. Not Time Warner, not Murdoch. So there's no corporate slant, no White House spin. Just the straight dope," the commercial says.


While the ad will appear on Time Warner's CNN, as well as NBC Universal's MSNBC and Bravo, it will not appear on Fox News, a division of the News Corporation whose chairman and chief executive is Rupert Murdoch.


"They rejected it out of hand," said Arthur Stupar, senior vice president for circulation at The Nation. "I find it ironic. They are the G.O.P. cable station, a champion of free markets, and they got spooked at the thought of running an ad that doesn't publish spin or serve the agenda of corporate conglomerates."


A spokesman for Fox News, which has always rejected the charge that it brings a partisan bias to news coverage, said, "We reject ads all the time," and declined further comment.


Executives at The Nation were hoping that Fox News would be more accommodating, especially because the network has bought an ad in the newest issue of The Nation, which will be coming out during the convention.


And last year, Fox News purchased a back-page ad in The Nation, an action that prompted 50 readers to cancel their subscriptions in protest of the magazine taking what they considered tainted money. After reading of the controversy, Fox News promptly purchased another.

yeah, that was sort of funny, based on all the letters written to the Nation, some folk think Fox is partisan or something. ahem.