Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney will meet with NBC this week to discuss removing their 1997 news clip featuring Tom Brokaw from an ad they are running in Florida, MSNBC reports.
Over the weekend, Mr. Romney’s campaign team began airing an the ad on television in Florida, which features an NBC “Nightly News” clip with Tom Brokaw talking about Newt Gingrich’s ethics violations case. Mr. Brokaw comments about Mr. Gingrich being fined for ethics violations.
On the same day the ad aired, David N. Sternlicht, vice president of media law at NBC, wrote a letter to Mr. Romney’s campaign team citing copyright issues with the ad.
Apparently, Mr. Romney never sought permission from NBC to use the news clip with Mr. Brokaw.
Additionally, Mr. Brokaw released a statement via NBC to notify Mr. Romney and his campaign staff that he did not want to be used in their clip, as it made it seem that he too was attacking Mr. Gingrich in the ad.
The former Massachusetts governor appeared on the “TODAY” show Monday, and told host Matt Lauer that he would soon meet with lawyers from NBC to discuss pulling the ad.
“We will sit down with the lawyers and talk to the folks at NBC and make a decision on that front,” said Mr. Romney Monday. “We’ll certainly consider that very carefully; obviously, this was not something taken from hidden files, this was on the evening news, so it should hardly come as a revealing piece for people who watch it.”
In 1997, the House Ethics Committee filed 84 counts of ethics charges against Mr. Gingrich with a House vote of 395-28. He was fined $300,000, it was the first time in U.S. history that a House speaker had been found guilty of such a charge.
The ad entitled “History Lesson” is currently posted to Mr. Romney’s presidential campaign website and running on television in Florida.
The entire ad features the news clip with Mr. Brokaw, and at the end, Mr. Romney is heard saying “I’m Mitt Romney and I approve this message.”
“I think the reason it was so effective as an ad was that this was not something that Speaker Gingrich could say had been distorted or that Romney was telling things that were not accurate,” said Mr. Romney Monday.
Mr. Gingrich has often accused Mr. Romney of distorting facts in debates, and pointed out several times when The Washington Post issued “pinnochios” to ads run by the Bain Capital co-founder’s campaign and the pro Romney Super PAC Restore Our Future.
On Monday Mr. Romney admitted that the former House speaker’s aggressive ad campaign in South Carolina had derailed his momentum in the Palmetto state.
Thus far, Restore Our Future has spent more than $7 million on running ads in Florida, and Mr. Romney himself has spent more than $4 million on ads in the Sunshine state.
The ads have served their purpose, as Mr. Gingrich is trailing Mr. Romney according to the latest polls of likely Florida Republican primary voters.
“These messages I think are connecting with people and my expectation is I will become the nominee,” said Mr. Romney Monday.
