Although FOX News Channel purportedly refused to run the latest attack ad from discredited anti-Kerry group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth because it “accuses Kerry of treason, a crime punishable by death,” the network gave the ad plenty of free airtime during network news coverage.

On September 21 and 22, FOX News Channel aired all or part of the ad on six different shows: Hannity & Colmes, FOX & Friends First, Studio B with Shepard Smith, FOX News Live, Special Report with Brit Hume, and The Big Story with John Gibson.

According to a September 24 Washington Post article by Post media reporter and CNN host Howard Kurtz, FOX News Channel vice president for legal affairs Dianne Brandi stated that FOX turned down the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ad because it “accuses Kerry of treason, a crime punishable by death.” Kurtz wrote that FOX News Channel also rejected a Media Fund ad questioning whether President George W. Bush's family and the Saudi royal family are “too close for comfort” because, Brandi said, the ad has “no actual evidence.”