NBC and Fox finally stop broadcasting Trump's racist advertising after seeing it by the millions

The ad ran approximately a dozen times on Fox News and Fox Business, before being withdrawn.

The announcement was released by the Trump campaign at the end of last week. He vilified the thousands of migrants heading for the US southern border, mistaking them as invaders and criminals. It seemed designed to stir up fear before the mid-term elections and increase Republicans' turnout.

CNN determined that the advertisement was racist and refused to sell him airtime. But other networks have agreed to sell the time.

Many viewers were stunned when "Sunday Night Football" aired 21 million viewers this week.

This week's game had a particularly important audience since it resulted in a much-anticipated meet between two of the league's top quarterbacks, Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers.

An NFL spokesman said the league had played no role in spreading Sunday's publicity.

"The NFL has no right of approval regarding campaign ads," the spokesman said. "It's up to the network that sells the ad and broadcasts the game."

In addition to the NBC broadcast network, NBCUniversal has allowed the advertisement to be broadcast repeatedly on MSNBC before Monday's decision is made.

An NBC source said the ad had been approved by the broadcast standards and practices team. "We regret the decision that the advertisement was broadcast," said the source, "and that it will not be broadcast on any NBCUniversal property, locally or nationally."

Fox News did not explain why he had pulled the ad. The 30-second spot was not only racist, it also contained factual inaccuracies and it is not uncommon for networks to reject advertisements for such motives.

Fox's decision was particularly surprising given the proximity of the network and its friendly relations with the White House.

Network critics say its hosts and commentators use some of the same racist rhetoric and scare tactics that are used in advertising.

"How does Fox News explain this by offering hours of the same propaganda for racial fear in prime time to promote Trump (free) every night?" asked Jesse Lehrich, director of communications for the progressive group Organizing for America and former spokeswoman for Hillary Clinton.

On Twitter, Brad Parscale, head of Trump's 2020 campaign, ignored Fox's decision to pull the announcement.

Instead, Parscale criticized NBC, CNN and Facebook and said "#FakeNewsMedia" was trying to "control what you see and how you think".

A little later, a reporter questioned the president about the controversy. He said, "I do not know about that, I mean, you tell me something that I do not know." He added: "We have a lot of commercials, and they are certainly effective based on the numbers we see."

Asked about the offensive nature of the ad, Trump replied, "Well, a lot of things are shocking, your questions are often so."

Persons familiar with the case told CNN that the advertisement had not been transmitted to CBS or ABC, so these networks were not obliged to decide to sell the time of the day. 39, antenna or not.

CNN was to make its decision Friday when the advertisement was submitted.

The next day, Donald Trump Jr. complained on Twitter that CNN "refused to broadcast" the advertisement.