Fox News Tells McCain Not To Use Fox Footage On Web Site -- But Lets Rudy (And Romney) Use It
October 26, 2007 -- 4:50 PM EST // //
Updated Below.
What on earth is going on between Fox News and John McCain?
Yesterday, Fox News lawyers sent a cease and desist letter to John McCain's campaign, demanding that he halt use of a new ad that uses footage from the Fox-sponsored GOP debate on Oct. 21. Fox is alleging copyright infringement. McCain's campaign is refusing Fox's demand.
But I've learned that there's more to this story.
I've obtained a copy of Fox's letter to McCain. And it explicitly demands that McCain not just stop running the ad, but also demands that he pull the ad from his campaign web site, too, and indeed also demands that he refrain from using any Fox footage on his campaign's site.
The letter says: "Fox News demands that John McCain 2008 immediately cease and desist from any further use of the copyrighted material and that access through the Website to the Ad, the Fox News Debate or any portion thereof, and/or any other Fox news materials, be immediately disabled." That seems clear: No Fox footage of any sort on his site at all. That's surprisingly onerous.
What's amusing, though, is that if you head over to Rudy Giuliani's campaign web site, you find that it is absolutely festooned with Fox News footage. It even prominently features footage from the very same debate that Fox is demanding McCain yank down from his site. Here, for instance, is what you find on Rudy's campaign blog:
That's a screenshot of the vid on Rudy's site of the same debate footage. Rudy's site is just covered with the Fox stuff.
What's the deal here? On one level, it's tempting to believe that Fox is going after McCain's use of their footage -- and letting Rudy keep using it -- because Fox chief Roger Ailes is trying to help Rudy. After all, Ailes is a longtime friend and very close ally of the former Mayor. Many have wondered whether Fox News will throw its weight behind Rudy and help him in the GOP primary, and Fox's Sean Hannity, who frequently has Rudy on as a guest, introduced the former Mayor at one of his fundraisers.
It's hard to believe this is what's driving this, though, partly because Mitt Romney's Web site also features a bunch of Fox footage. On the other hand, maybe Fox's cease-and-desist letter is on its way to Romney's headquarters as we speak.
Seriously, though, it's intriguing that a network owned by such a close friend of Rudy is going after McCain so aggressively behind the scenes. They don't seem to want McCain to be using Fox footage to legitimize him with GOP primary voters at all. Fox did pillory McCain over his support for the immigration bill. Whatever the motive here, it seems like there could be more of a story behind this.
I contacted Fox to see what gives, but a Fox spokesperson didn't immediately return a call for comment. Meanwhile, here's the McCain ad that Fox News doesn't want you to see:
Update: Fox News backs off, sends cease-and-desist letters to all the leading GOP candidates.
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