An executive producer for 2016: Obama's America says CNN declined to air the conservative documentary's commercial because it was "too political," EW.com reports.
John Sullivan, who also co-directed the film, tells the entertainment news site: "They rejected our ad, actually. A really weird situation. That was really funny. They said it was 'too political,' which is very odd because we have no affiliation with any political party of any sort, or PAC, or anything of that nature."
According to Sullivan, networks including MSNBC, Fox News, Discovery Channel and A&E aired the ad. CNN, meanwhile, disputes his allegations that they snubbed the spot.
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CNN did not reject the ad, a cable news channel's spokeperson says in a statement to EW.com. We asked them to explain why they believe the ad is not subject to political advertising disclosure requirements, and we did not hear back from them with any explanation.
Sullivan, in turn, calls CNN "too political" but hopes the cable news channel will approve the film's second ad being shopped to outlets; CNN has not yet received the commercial for approval, according to the site's sources.
At issue for CNN: a Federal Election Commission ruling in which an advertisement advocating for or against a political candidate must include a disclaimer notice on who paid for it. But MSNBC did not tack on a disclaimer when it aired the Obama's America teaser as a standard movie ad, according to EW.com, citing a network representative as saying it had been cleared through NBC News's standards and practices department.
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Meanwhile, Sullivan asserts, "There's no grand investor conspiracy here," and that "business Democrats and Republications" were among those who financed the movie.
On Monday, Obama's America surged to No. 2 at the domestic box office as the Republication National Convention rolled out in Tampa. The documentary, bested only by The Expendables 2, grossed an estimated $1.2 million for the day from 1,091 theaters, dropping a narrow 37 percent from Sunday.
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