Dear Commons Community,

An ad for an Oscar-nominated, anti-Nazi  documentary, A Night at the Garden, warns that history can repeat itself, but as of this morning,  Fox News had refused to air it.

According to The Washington Post, MSNBC has decided to run a tweaked version of the 30-second ad, which is set to air during “The Rachel Maddow Show.” The revised spot now includes a title card noting the film’s Oscar nomination.

The Post also confirmed that CNN will air the ad during “The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer,” though it is not clear whether it will be the original version without the title card, which was rejected by Fox.

The film, “A Night at the Garden,” walks through a 1939 Nazi rally that took place at Madison Square Garden in the heart of New York City. At the end of the black-and-white ad, a line of text flashes on the screen, cautioning, “It can happen here.”

The Hollywood Reporter (THR) revealed on Thursday that the spot was meant to be seen by viewers of Sean Hannity’s prime-time broadcast on Fox News. The point, THR reported, was for the spot to serve as an indirect commentary on President Donald Trump’s populist rhetoric.

“The film shines a light on a time when thousands of Americans fell under the spell of a demagogue who attacked the press and scapegoated minorities using the symbols of American patriotism,” Night at the Garden director Marshall Curry said in a statement to THR.

He added, “It’s amazing to me that the CEO of Fox News would personally inject herself into a small ad buy just to make sure that Hannity viewers weren’t exposed to this chapter of American history.”

According to the Post, it had almost been rejected by NBC-Universal because of its provocative imagery, but passed muster after the addition of the title card.

Tony

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