Fox News Channel Won’t Show Pro-Abortion Ad on Samuel Alito

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Nov 22, 2005   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
November 22, 2005

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — The Fox News Channel says it will not show an ad sponsored by abortion advocacy groups that bashes Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito on abortion. Attorneys for the news station say the ad is factually incorrect.

The groups backing the ad include the Alliance for Justice, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, People for The American Way and NARAL, a leading pro-abortion organization.

The ad attacks Alito on abortion, quoting from his 1985 letter in which he said there is no right to abortion in the Constitution and adding he was happy to work to overturn abortion during the Reagan administration.

The ad also highlights a case Alito ruled on while serving on the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in which he supposedly "voted to approve strip search of a 10-year-old girl."

That refers to a 2004 case in which Alito dissented regarding police officers who were sued when they searched a mother and her 10 year-old daughter. He said the search warrant issued by the judge for the police authorized the search of anyone found at the site.

Paul Schur, a spokesman for Fox, told the Associated Press that its attorneys have said the ad is "factually incorrect and we’ve given them an opportunity to fix it." But Jim Jordan, a spokesman for the groups running the ad said the decision was about politics.

"The entire right wing establishment, from Pat Robertson to Jerry Falwell to Fox News, has circled the wagons around Sam Alito," he told AP. "Roger Ailes doesn’t get to edit our ads."

President Bush nominated Alito to replace the retiring pro-abortion justice Sandra Day O’Connor and the Senate is expected to begin confirmation hearings in January.