2 months ago
California Rep. Adam Schiff has used his perch as a hero of the MAGA resistance to implore advertisers to boycott Fox News.
Now a candidate for the Senate, Schiff is violating his own entreaty. On Saturday, the Burbank Democrat will begin running TV ads on Fox.
Schiff’s ad buy is the latest in his deluge of spending to fortify his frontrunner status in the March 5 primary, and, possibly even clear a path to the Senate.
Schiff has spent millions to promote Republican Steve Garvey and box out fellow Democrat Katie Porter. A pro-Schiff super PAC also is running ads on Fox News intended to boost Garvey.
But the Schiff ads run counter to his boycott plea just last year as part of a sweeping indictment of the network’s brass and hosts as “shameful.” Schiff at the time said his boycott applied to Fox News and all other “stations that deliberately put out lies and deliberately undermine our elections.”
Schiff’s decision to steer his donations to Fox is an acknowledgement that the potential Garvey voters he’s hoping turn out in the primary are squarely in the network’s target demographics. A Schiff campaign spokesperson did not directly address the boycott, but defended his decision to spend money on Fox.
“It’s important for California voters — no matter what TV channel they tune into — to know what’s at stake in this election,” Marisol Samayoa told POLITICO. “We’ll continue to bring our message to voters across the Golden State.”
Schiff’s TV spend comes amid a long-running debate among Democrats about how to handle the right-leaning news and opinion behemoth. Many leading Democrats in recent years have refused to appear on Fox’s airwaves, arguing that their mere participation helps feed its biased narratives and indirectly contributes to its bottomline.
But Fox is a ratings juggernaut, giving the opposition party a large platform to push back against the network’s content.
Entree to that audience via TV ads is even more enticing. And Schiff isn’t the only one who has turned to Fox. Porter, who has been critical of Fox but not directly called for an advertising boycott, has started running ads of her own that promote a lesser-known Republican, Eric Early, and to criticize Garvey as less conservative.
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