Despite McCain ads running repeatedly, Hannity, Caddell claim he pulled them following campaign “suspension”

Written by Matthew Biedlingmaier

Published

Referring to Sen. John McCain's announcement that he was going to “suspend” his campaign, Sean Hannity and Fox News contributor Pat Caddell asserted on Hannity & Colmes that McCain is “not running ads.” In fact, as Alan Colmes noted, and as Media Matters documented, McCain campaign television ads ran throughout the day following McCain's announcement.

Referring to Sen. John McCain's September 24 announcement that he was going to “suspend” his presidential campaign, co-host Alan Colmes said on the September 25 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, “What kind of a campaign suspension is a guy who says, 'I'm suspending my campaign,' keeps running ads, goes on television?” Co-host Sean Hannity responded: “He's not running ads. He's pulled them.” When Colmes countered, “Ads kept running today,” Fox News contributor Pat Caddell responded: “He's not running ads.” Hannity then stated: “He pulled them.” In fact, as Colmes noted, and as Media Matters for America documented on September 25, McCain campaign television ads ran throughout the day.

Additionally, according to a Media Matters search* of the TVEyes.com database, McCain ads ran on September 25 during the 7:00 p.m. ET hour on several network affiliates, including WWJ-TV, a CBS affiliate, and WOOD-TV, an NBC affiliate. Further, a McCain ad ran at 6:53 p.m. ET on WXIX-TV, a Fox affiliate.

Caddell later stated: “He said he's suspending his campaign, pulling his ads. It takes several days. You buy the ads in advance, by the way, just to inform your audience.” Colmes responded: “What about the surrogates? Why didn't he pull the surrogates off television?” As Media Matters has also documented, despite the purported suspension, McCain campaign surrogates -- including Nancy Pfotenhauer, Tucker Bounds, and Nicolle Wallace -- continued to appear on cable news networks throughout the day, attacking Sen. Barack Obama.

From the September 25 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes:

COLMES: All right. And let me ask you, Pat Caddell: What kind of a campaign suspension is a guy who says, “I'm suspending my campaign,” keeps running ads, goes on television?

HANNITY: He's not running ads.

COLMES: Goes on --

HANNITY: He's pulled them.

COLMES: Ads kept running today.

CADDELL: He's not running ads.

HANNITY: He pulled them.

COLMES: The ads ran today.

CADDELL: No, but he --

COLMES: He goes on television, he does interviews --

CADDELL: Alan --

COLMES: -- and he continues to put his surrogates on TV. How is that suspending a campaign?

CADDELL: Whoa, whoa, whoa. He said he's suspending his campaign, pulling his ads. It takes several days. You buy the ads in advance, by the way, just to inform your audience.

COLMES: What about the surrogates? Why didn't he pull the surrogates off television?

CADDELL: But the surrogates -- but the point is -- look, but he is in Washington. He went there -- he went there to say we have to deal with this. It was for him. It helped, and the fact is, I think there is a problem here -- that the, you know, that the Republicans were not on board in the House. Something will come out of this.

* Media Matters searched the TVEyes.com database for “I'm John McCain and I approve this message” from 6:00 a.m. ET to 9:00 p.m. ET.