Fox News to McCain Camp: ‘Cease and Desist’

Fox News sent a tersely-worded “cease and desist” letter to the McCain campaign today, demanding the removal of Fox correspondent Major Garrett’s voice from a campaign ad, according to Politico. The ad in question hammers Sen. Barack Obama for not taking an immediate position on the AIG bailout and for voting “present nearly 130 times as a state senator.” The spot, titled “Nothing New,” begins with a Garrett voice-over, saying “Obama would not say if he supported or opposed the government-backed rescue of insurance giant AIG.” From the letter:

“We demand that you immediately remove Mr. Garrett’s voice from this ad. As Mr. Garrett is a non-partisan news correspondent covering the Obama campaign for Fox News, it is highly inappropriate, among other things, of your campaign to use him in your ad.”

The letter comes just one week after CBS had McCain’s “Lipstick” video pulled from YouTube because it contained footage of news anchor Katie Couric. The campaign has also received a long list of similar requests from artists and their representatives, whose material has been used without permission in ads, videos and campaign events, including: musicians Jackson Browne, Van Halen, Heart, Frankie Valli and comedian Mike Myers.

Clearly, it’s not that the McCain campaign doesn’t know about intellectual property laws, it’s just that it doesn’t care.