According to conservative talk radio personality Chris Stigall, Fox News is informing all media outlets not affiliated with them that the first GOP primary debate is exclusively theirs.
Fox News apparently doesn’t want anyone airing clips of the broadcast beyond three minutes and never again after seven days.
“Fox News is telling everyone in media not directly affiliated with them that the August 23rd Republican debate is exclusively theirs and no one is allowed to air any clips of the broadcast beyond three total minutes, and never again after a 7 day window,” Stigall wrote.
“In other words, they’re treating this debate as if it’s an NFL or MLB broadcast. It’s not. This has never been done and deserves a legal challenge.”
“You are hereby advised to respect Fox News’ exclusive rights to the Debate by not broadcasting, transmitting, selling, licensing, giving, bartering, exchanging or otherwise disseminating the Debate, or any portion thereof, regardless of whether Fox News supplied you the Debate or if the Debate or excerpts were supplied to you by other sources,” an alleged memo obtained by Stigall read.
The memo describes the following restrictions for permission to use the Debate.
Fox News is telling everyone in media not directly affiliated with them that the August 23rd Republican debate is exclusively theirs and no one is allowed to air any clips of the broadcast beyond three total minutes, and never again after a 7 day window. In other words, they’re… pic.twitter.com/KQ3r1ohqFW
— Chris Stigall (@ChrisStigall) August 10, 2023
“These are REPUBLICAN debates, not FOX News debates. @GOPChairwoman needs to fix this right now, if she wants talk radio and conservative news outlets to spend any time informing the public about the GOP candidates for president,” said radio host Larry O’Connor.
These are REPUBLICAN debates, not FOX News debates. @GOPChairwoman needs to fix this right now, if she wants talk radio and conservative news outlets to spend any time informing the public about the GOP candidates for president. https://t.co/KpYqZapzKh
— L A R R Y (@LarryOConnor) August 10, 2023
It’s questionable if many Republican voters will watch the first RNC-sanctioned GOP debate airing on Fox News August 23rd.
President Trump refused to sign a loyalty pledge to support the party’s eventual nominee, one of the RNC’s requirements to participate.
BREAKING: Donald Trump says he will not sign the RNC pledge to support the 2024 Republican nominee if he loses the GOP presidential primary pic.twitter.com/DS13byrsPW
— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) August 10, 2023
According to Fox News, eight candidates have reached the polling and donor thresholds to qualify for the debate stage.
They include:
- Donald Trump
- Ron DeSantis
- Tim Scott
- Mike Pence
- Vivek Ramaswamy
- Nikki Haley
- Doug Burgum
- Chris Christie
Fox News reports:
DeSantis and Ramaswamy have also signed a RNC-mandated pledge to support the eventual 2024 GOP presidential nominee, which Trump has indicated he'll refuse to sign.
Roughly a half dozen Republican White House hopefuls are still aiming to make the stage. That list includes former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, former CIA spy and former Rep. Will Hurd of Texas, Mayor Francis Suarez of Miami, Florida, Michigan businessman and quality control leader Perry Johnson, and Larry Elder, a former talk radio host who was a candidate for governor in the 2021 California recall election.
Christie, in a Fox News Digital interview in New Hampshire on Wednesday, emphasized that the debate "means a lot for me and every other candidate. It’s going to be the biggest audience any of us have spoken before in a long time. It’s important for people to get to know you, to know who you are, what you want to do for the party and for the country. And that’s exactly what I intend to do in two weeks."
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