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- Mike Lindell yanked all his ads from Fox News in July after it wouldn’t run his cyber-symposium ad.
- Since then, Lindell has pitched at least four commercials to the network, he told The Daily Beast.
- Fox News keeps rejecting them, despite MyPillow’s prior status as one of the network’s biggest sponsors.
- See more stories on Insider’s business page.
After angrily pulling all his commercials from Fox News this summer following a spat with the network, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell seems to have changed his tune.
In July, Lindell, who at the time was Fox host Tucker Carlson’s biggest sponsor, said he was yanking his commercials because the network refused to air an ad for his cyber symposium. Lindell was claiming the symposium would prove voter fraud, but after the event occured in August, it was dismissed by cyber experts.
Lindell said he was pulling his ads “immediately and indefinitely,” saying “shame on Fox” for refusing to run the ad for the symposium.
“It’s unfortunate Mr. 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,” the network said in a statement to Insider’s Matthew Loh at the time.
But according to a new report from The Daily Beast, the tables have turned, with Fox now turning down Lindell.
Lindell told the outlet he first approached Fox just weeks after cutting ties, in an attempt to mend the advertising relationship and promote his new social media network, FrankSpeech.
He has since pitched at least four commercials to Fox, all of which have been rejected, according to The Daily Beast.
Fox News confirmed to the outlet that as recently as this week, it had rejected two ads from Lindell, though it did not provide reasoning for the decisions.
But Lindell told Insider that Fox doesn’t like the content at FrankSpeech.com.
“Fox is only turning down ads that have frank or frankspeech in the title,” Lindell said in a message.
He told The Daily Beast that at first Fox did not want any mention of the cyber symposium or election fraud, but that commercials he pitched without these factors were also turned down.
“They said I couldn’t mention the words ‘Frank’ or ‘FrankSpeech,'” he told The Daily Beast Thursday. “It was the fastest reply we’ve gotten. But if I removed the words ‘FrankSpeech’ it might have cleared, but it would have just been a MyPillow ad, which I said I’m not doing! Outrageous!”
Lindell has been an ardent supporter of former President Donald Trump and a steadfast proponent of conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, even as he faces down lawsuits from election technology companies Dominion and Smartmatic.
Fox News and some of its hosts have also been targeted by the lawsuits over their coverage of the election.
Fox News did not immediately reply to Insider’s request for comment.
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