When Kari Lake walked away from a decades long career as a television news anchor, she took with her a wealth of knowledge about what she called the “fake news” industry. That knowledge is paying off say, critics and supporters, as it is providing nearly free fuel for her gubernatorial run.
Lake, who is running to be Arizona’s next governor, launched her first TV ad on Presidents’ Day. The campaign says the move is “quite fitting as it will air on every corporate news station in Arizona during the “fake news.” The campaign says the ad holds the “media accountable for their refusal to cover the botched 2020 election.”
Our FIRST TV Ad dropped today. I am ONLY airing this video in the middle of Corporate News programs.
The best part? They cannot refuse my Ads thanks to FCC rules. If the Fake News is hell-bent on lying about the 2020 Election, I’ll force them to air some uncomfortable truths. pic.twitter.com/1E2wLhqQOS
— Kari Lake for AZ Governor (@KariLake) February 21, 2022
Lake’s campaign echoes the sentiment of former President Donald Trump, calling “fake news the enemy of the people.”
The Trump-endorsed Lake is leading in the polls, and said in a press release that she is not a “conventional candidate so it should surprise no one that I don’t have conventional, boring campaign ads. If the fake news refuses to tell the truth, it’s up to us to do so. I am the only candidate with both solutions to the problems we face and I lay many of them out in our first ad. Get ready!”
On several occasions, Lake has used her experience to turn the tables on hostile reporters. Lake thoroughly humiliated a reporter from 60 Minutes Australia late last month in an interview, which was filmed simultaneously by her own crew. The campaign posted the video which has been viewed on Rumble nearly 300,000 times.
The total cost of Lake’s first ad buy is surprisingly small, at reportedly just $3500 in the Phoenix broadcast market, according to a tweet by reporter Jeremy Duda. That is enough for the ad to play just once on each station, but with Lake’s popularity on social media, she is expected to get a lot of free online views once the ads have played on TV.