NBC asks Romney to remove news material from ad - Boston.com
NBC asked GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Saturday to pull a campaign advertisement made up almost entirely of a 1997 “Nightly News” report on Newt Gingrich’s ethics committee reprimand.
The “History Lesson” ad started running in Florida on the weekend, when it is harder for stations to switch ad traffic even if they want to. Broadcast days before Tuesday’s primary, the ad shows former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw saying that some of Gingrich’s House colleagues had raised questions about the then-speaker’s “future effectiveness.”
Under Brokaw’s image is a line that reads — “Paid for by Romney for President, Approved by Mitt Romney.”
The footage was used without permission and the extensive use of the broadcast “inaccurately suggests that NBC News and Mr. Brokaw have consented to the use of this material and agree with the political position espoused by the videos,” NBC’s vice president of media law, David N. Sternlicht, wrote Romney’s campaign manager, Matt Rhoades.
