This is interesting...the LA Times' Matea Gold reports that Fox News will be off the air in Mexico in advance of the country's presidential election, starting today until after the polls close on Sunday in order to "steer clear of that country's restrictions on campaign ads and public surveys." What this basically means is that the Mexican government is putting restrictions on what the media can report, so, because Fox News refuses to be censored, the cable channel pre-emptively went off the air there at 12:01am today:
Fox News decided to temporarily halt transmission into Mexico because of concerns that the channel's coverage would violate a ban on disseminating opinion polls or campaign commercials in the days before the election, and jeopardize the standing of the cable and satellite companies that distribute its signal.
"I just don't think we had much choice," said Janet Alshouse, senior vice president of international distribution for Fox News. "We can't restrict our coverage."
CNN, by contrast, plans to say "how high" when the Mexican government says "jump" (except CNN calls it "working within regulations." (That has a nice state-run-media ring to it, no?)
It was unclear Wednesday whether any other organizations planned to pull their signal in advance of the election. CNN International and CNN en Espanol plan to remain on the air, said spokeswoman Caroline Rittenberry.
"CNN is a global broadcaster with multiple global networks and we are used to trying to work within the regulations of the countries that we serve," she said.
