Fox News Stops Running MyPillow Commercials In A Payment Dispute With Election Denier Mike Lindell

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) MyPillow chief executive and prominent election denier Mike Lindell said Friday that Fox News has stopped running his companys commercials, disputing the networks assertion that it is simply because he hasnt paid his bills.

Lindell went public by tweeting that that Fox, which had been one of MyPillows biggest advertising outlets, had canceled him. He said in his tweet that he didnt know why but that he suspected that the network was trying to silence him. Fox denied that.

Losing Fox was just the latest in a series of financial and legal setbacks for Minnesota-based MyPillow and Lindell, who continues to propagate former President Donald Trumps lies that the 2020 election was stolen from him, in part by rigged voting machine systems. Several big-box retailers, including Walmart, have discontinued his products , and lawyers who were defending him against defamation lawsuits by voting machine companies quit.

As soon as their account is paid, we would be happy to accept their advertising, Fox spokeswoman Irena Briganti said.

Theyre 100% lying, Lindell said an interview with The Associated Press. But he acknowledged that MyPillow owes money to Fox. He put the figure at $7.8 million, but he insisted that the sum is within his credit line with the network. He said MyPillow has long spent an average of $1 million a week to run its ads on Fox. And he said the network had long allowed him 12 weeks of credit until it recently cut that to eight weeks.

This has nothing to do with money. Thats a fact, Lindell said.

Lindell said he believes Fox wants to silence him because I want to secure our election platforms. And he said he suspects the network is sore because his Lindell TV/FrankSpeech online channel recently hired former Fox Business host Lou Dobbs, whose debut show on Monday night featured an interview with Trump, who made further false claims that the 2020 election was rigged.

Fox last April agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems nearly $800 million to avert a trial in the voting machine companys lawsuit that would have exposed how the network promoted lies about the 2020 election on shows by Dobbs and other hosts. Fox canceled Dobbs show three years ago.

Lindell acknowledged in an interview in October that he owed two law firms that were defending him against lawsuits by Dominion and Smartmatic millions of dollars that he couldnt pay, which is why they quit. He said MyPillow had been decimated.

But Lindell insisted Friday that MyPillow is doing great. He said its still running ads on another conservative network, Newsmax, and on his own platforms. But he conceded that losing Fox will hurt the business and said he would run his ads there again if Fox would take them.

Obviously, it would be great if Fox said, Hey, come back, Lindell said.