The American conservative magazine The American, the conservative publication founded by former Republican presidential candidate and 2016 presidential hopeful, Mitt Romney, is in the midst of a nationwide campaign against advertising that portrays itself as being nonpartisan, fair and balanced.
Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The American has come under fire in recent months from right-wing groups such as the Tea Party Patriots, which filed a lawsuit on behalf of a Colorado television station alleging that the magazine had used a photo of Mitt Romney as its mascot and featured an advertisement for a Mitt Romney ad campaign in its pages.
The American is also under scrutiny from the conservative advocacy group Americans for Prosperity (AFP), which has sued to stop the magazine from publishing an advertisement from a company called Drexel Capital, which is run by former George W. Bush administration adviser Stephen K. Bannon.
“This is a very dangerous campaign against journalists, which, ironically, they’ve been using against the press,” AFP spokeswoman Anna Clark told The Associated Press.
“They’ve been trying to take away their job from us, so now they’re using the law to shut down our ability to do our jobs.”
The American’s ads are designed to portray the magazine as a neutral, fact-based publication, said Jonathan Turley, senior vice president at the watchdog group Media Matters.
“In reality, they’re trying to create a fake news environment to undermine the media,” Turley said.
“I’ve seen ads like this before.
They’re designed to undermine a newsroom.
They have a real desire to have a free press and have the American people believe that they’re a nonpartisan news outlet.”
Advertisement Advertisement As a result of a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission, the magazine will no longer be running ads for the Drexell Capital company, the publication announced.
Drexen Capital is run out of the same offices in Washington, D.C., as Drexelle, an American-based company that publishes online newspapers and magazines.
The advertisement is meant to highlight the American Conservative’s efforts to protect the “independence and integrity of journalism,” the publication said in a statement.
“These ads are a direct attack on the integrity of American journalism, the First Amendment, and the American public’s right to free speech,” the statement said.
According to the complaint filed against the magazine by the conservative group, the Doxxed, the advertisements are part of an effort by AFP to intimidate and discredit the magazine’s reporters and editors.
The complaint claims that AFP has attempted to use its influence over the publication to try to shut the magazine down.
The AFP filed the complaint in federal court in Washington in July.
A copy of the complaint was provided to The Associated, which first reported the issue.
In a statement provided to the AP, Drexle Capital’s CEO, Kevin Langer, said that the company has “not and will not use any of its resources to target American Conservative staff or employees or our editorial staff, and that we will be cooperating fully with any investigation.”
“We respect the First, Second, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and have no interest in attacking our staff or our reporters,” Langer said in the statement.