Fox News and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell are taking a break.
Both sides have differing accounts as to why the conservative news network stopped airing the bedding magnate’s commercials.
Lindell told Steve Bannon that the network suspended the advertising deal and speculated that it might have been due to his views or decision to hire Lou Dobbs, a former Fox Business anchor.
On the other hand, Fox says the pillow company has not paid its bills.
“As soon as their account is paid, we would be happy to accept their advertising,” a spokesperson said.
Deadline explains:
Dobbs is the former Fox Business Network host who was pulled from the lineup in 2021. Dobbs had amplified claims that the 2020 election was rigged, and was named as a defendant in election systems company Smartmatic’s defamation lawsuit against the network. “I believe this is all about stopping me from talking about the election platform and the elections,” Lindell said. He himself is a defendant in the Smartmatic lawsuit and another one brought by Dominion Voting Systems.
But a source familiar with the matter said that the ad partnership was paused because Lindell has not been able to finance the commercial spots, something that was communicated at length to his media agency. Lindell told The Washington Post that his company had paid $4 million for ads “in December alone,” but a source said that the payment was for ad spots that aired in June and July of last year.
Lindell’s MyPillow spots have for years proliferated on Fox News, as he himself became known as one of the chief adherents to former President Donald Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him. But about a month after the election, Trump’s attorney general, William Barr, concluded that those claims were unfounded, while Trump’s legal team lost more than 60 legal challenges.
In October, attorneys who have represented Lindell sought to be released from cases because of unpaid legal bills.
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