Republicans change Beasley attack ad as TV attorney says pulling ad was premature
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A Republican campaign committee has changed an attack ad against North Carolina’s Democratic nominee for Senate after Cox Media Group said it was pulling the ad from its TV stations because it included false information.
But new attorneys for Cox — from a law firm that also represents the group that created the ad — now say the media company never actually decided to stop running the ad.
Last Friday, Cox Media Group, the parent company of WSOC-TV in Charlotte and WAXN-TV in Kannapolis, reportedly pulled an attack ad against Democrat Cheri Beasley because it contained false statements about whether Beasley allowed a child sex offender to “go free.”
Following the news, six other media outlets across North Carolina agreed to pull the ad while their legal teams reviewed its claims.
McClatchy sent a message to Cox Media Group on June 3 seeking comment about its decision to pull the ad but received no response. However, CBS News, which first reported the decision, said it obtained a letter from the company that read: “CMG will not run the ad when it contains false statements on material issue.”
But an attorney representing Cox Media Group sent a letter Wednesday to the law firm that had sent the stations a cease-and-desist request regarding the ad, and said the original email from Cox was never meant to be sent and was not the company’s final decision. The Cox attorneys allege that the opposing firm knowingly took the letter out of context in making it public.
Attack ad
The National Republican Senatorial Committee, which created the 30-second ad, titled “Failed our Children,” says it stands by the statements made in the ad. The ad covers three cases Beasley helped decide in her roles on the North Carolina Supreme Court and Court of Appeals.
The one that has caused the most ire involves a man named James Terrell, who was accused of possessing pornographic images of children on a computer thumb drive. Beasley and the majority of justices on the Supreme Court in 2019 upheld an appellate ruling that a police officer had unconstitutionally searched Terrell’s thumb drive without a warrant. The Court of Appeals had sent the case back to Superior Court to determine if there was enough credible evidence to get a search warrant for the thumb drive without the knowledge the officer had gained by his illegal search of the content. The commercial wrongly claims that Beasley let Terrell go.
Terrell remained in prison from 2016 until Dec. 23, 2021, when he was released by court order, according to court documents and records from the North Carolina Department of Public Safety. It is unclear from records what caused his release, though his whereabouts are still being monitored by DPS.
NRSC spokesman Chris Hartline told McClatchy on June 4 that his organization stood by the ad.
“This bizarre statement from a TV station that had yet to receive or even ask for our substantiation for the claim will be noted by our media buyers as they make future decisions about ad buys,” Hartline said in a statement.
WFAE first reported Friday morning that NRSC changed its original 30-second ad to say Beasley “sided with him…not the police.” Hartline confirmed to McClatchy that the change was made to get the ad back on the air on the stations that had pulled it. But most stations are still running the original version.
Reacting to the letter from Cox Media Group’s attorneys sent Wednesday, Hartline said he was glad that this was exposed and called it a “dirty trick” by the Beasley campaign to cover up her record.
“We will continue reminding the voter’s of North Carolina that Cheri Beasley consistently sided with violent criminals and failed to protect families and children,” Hartline said.
Beasley’s spokeswoman, Dory MacMillan, also reacted to the letter.
“This is nothing more than an embarrassing, desperate attempt by Washington Republicans who were caught lying about Cheri’s record,” MacMillan said. “The fact is eight television stations across North Carolina removed the NRSC’s false ad, and we will make sure voters know the truth.”
Beasley won the Democratic primary in May and will face U.S. Rep. Ted Budd, the Republican nominee, in the November general election.
Cox fights back
What wasn’t previously clear was that Marc Elias, a Democrat often involved in redistricting cases around the country, was involved in sending the cease-and-desist letter to television companies asking them to pull the ad from the air.
McClatchy obtained a copy of the email to Elias’ firm from a TV national sales manager that reads in full: “CMG Legal Council has directed us to remove the ad. It appears the statement ‘voted to set the defendant free’ is in error-as it appears the defendant was not set free. The defendant was not set free by the ruling as the ad claims. CMG will not run the ad when it contains a false statement on material issue. This ad has been removed from airing.”
On Wednesday, Cox’s attorney, Kathleen Kirby, with Wiley Rein LLP, sent Elias a letter saying the TV employee had sent him an internal email that wasn’t authorized by the company’s in-house legal team and included a portion of preliminary advice from the company’s outside legal team that was not authorized for dissemination.
McClatchy confirmed with Kirby the authenticity of her letter, but she declined to comment further saying the letter speaks for itself.
Federal Elections Commission reports show that Wiley Rein LLP is a client of NRSC and has been paid more than $665,803 this election cycle. NRSC wrote on its website that Cox Media Group also employs, as its in-house general counsel, Elias’ former law partner.
“It appears that you are referencing this email communication in a manner that mischaracterizes its contents as the final determination by CMG concerning the ad’s suitability for broadcast,” Kirby wrote to Elias. “This is incorrect.”
Kirby told Elias that the email references partial and preliminary advice from counsel and not a final decision about the claim or whether the ad could remain on television.
“To portray the communication as CMG’s final judgment with respect to this particular ad or to suggest that it has any bearing whatsoever on entirely independent ads proposed by the same political advertiser, as certain of your communications could be interpreted to suggest, is wholly inaccurate,” Kirby said.
For more North Carolina government and politics news, listen to the Under the Dome politics podcast from The News & Observer and the NC Insider. You can find it at https://campsite.bio/underthedome or wherever you get your podcasts.
