Coming from a 30-year career in the mainstream media as a local broadcaster, Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake has naturally been able to spotlight many of the biases of the media while campaigning. The Trump-endorsed candidate’s second TV ad launched this weekend, including on Monday, during the former show she co-anchored on Fox 10 News. It instructs viewers to turn the show off.
She began in the ad, “The media isn’t just corrupt, they are anti-American.” A clip of her walking next to 12 News reporter Brahm Resnik is shown, with Lake telling him, “I noticed that you would not say the Pledge of Allegiance, and that’s really despicable. Why can’t you put your hand on your heart? When these Media Hacks show you how much they hate America, believe them.”
Lake called Resnik out last year in August. He was covering a protest at ASU she helped lead over COVID-19 mandates, and when the students said the Pledge of Allegiance, he did not participate. She tweeted at the time, “Truly Disgusting. NBC 12News Political Reporter @brahmresnik refuses to participate in The Pledge of Allegiance. Brahm is a Radical Left-wing Activist disguised as a ‘Journalist.’”
https://twitter.com/KariLake/status/1426305016290283522?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Resnick, who is from Canada, became a U.S. citizen in 2012. The ad continued, “We don’t care what the media says. The media is full of it. The media has disappointed Arizonans, and they’ve disappointed this country.”
She concluded, “Americans are ditching the fake corporate media, and I continue to call them out.” She is shown holding up a TV remote control and the screen goes black as she says, “Turn them off.”
Lake ran a similar ad last month, titled “Rigged Elections Have Consequences,” which played during local news shows and also instructed viewers to “turn them off.” Lake has consistently denounced the fraud in the 2020 presidential election in Arizona, supporting the independent ballot audit of Maricopa County which found there was likely significant voter fraud.
News stations probably can’t legally refuse to run her ads. FCC rules state that if a station allows state and local political candidates to run ads, they must accept them from all candidates.
Lake has stirred up interest in combating media bias during her campaign. She cleverly recorded her 60 Minutes Australia interview with a “lunatic journalist,” including their conversation afterwards, to ensure that the public could see the entire exchange, not just selectively edited clips.
During an interview last month with an ABC reporter who asked her a typical gotcha question directed toward Republicans, she flipped the script. The reporter asked her, “Do you think Joe Biden is the president?” Lake responded, “Well, he’s obviously sitting in the White House.”
When she wouldn’t take the bait, the reporter tried asking the question again a different way, asking if Lake believes the election was stolen and whether Biden was the legitimate president. Lake turned the tables on her, responding, “Do you think that Joe Biden garnered 81 million votes? Do you think the elections were fair?” The reporter shrugged off her questions.
Lake is polling higher than all other Republican candidates in the Arizona gubernatorial primary combined, and beats the leading Democratic contender, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, in a general election matchup.
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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at the Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Kari Lake” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
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