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An Israel-funded advertisement which ran during Super Bowl LVIII in February during the game between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers reportedly drew most of the FCC complaints.
Super Bowl viewers were upset the Israeli government was able to run the ad titled “Bring All Dads Back Home,” TMZ reported on Tuesday, citing FCC documents.
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San Francisco 49ers fans pose outside Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas ahead of their team taking on the Kansas City Chiefs in the 2024 Super Bowl on Feb. 11, 2024. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
The advertisement sent a message to “all the dads held in captivity by Hamas for over 120 days, we vow to bring you home.”
TMZ noted that a lot of language in the complaints read similarly.
“CBS violated FCC rules by not properly disclosing to viewers on all platforms that ads aired during the Super Bowl were paid for by the Israeli government.”
The ADC, an Arab-American group that calls itself a “civil rights organization committed to defending the rights of people of Arab descent and promoting their rich cultural heritage,” appeared to give concerned citizens a way to file a complaint with the FCC directly on its website.
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A pro-Israel Super Bowl ad reportedly sparked most of the FCC complaints. (The National Public Diplomacy Directorate at the Prime Minister’s Office)
“During the recent broadcast of the Super Bowl, CBS aired an ad that was paid for by the State of Israel,” a message on the group’s website read. “This advertisement was aired without the proper disclaimers mandated by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations. This not only undermines the integrity of broadcasting standards but also misleads the public by not providing necessary context about the ad’s origins..”
On Feb. 13, the ADC said tens of thousands demanded the FCC take action over the advertisement.
“It is imperative that the FCC take action. Networks like CBS have an obligation to inform the American public when they are selling air time to foreign governments, and this includes Israel,” ADC national executive director Abed Abyoub said in a news release. “Failure to abide by these regulations will allow for the free flow of foreign propaganda across our airwaves, something that should concern every American.”
An FCC spokesperson told Fox News Digital on Tuesday, “We do not comment on enforcement or potential enforcement proceedings. However, we will note that the Commission’s regulations pertaining to foreign sponsorship identification are limited to broadcast programming, not programming provided via streaming platforms.”
This week, the Israeli military said there are still over 130 hostages who remain in Gaza.
Six surviving hostages are American, theState Department said in January. The U.S. continues to work with Qatar and Egypt to negotiate a deal to release all hostages in exchange for a cease-fire, but talks stalled out in recent weeks.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier this week insisted, “Our conviction remains that we need to see an immediate cease-fire to enable the release of hostages, but also to enable a dramatic surge in humanitarian assistance, as well as, obviously, better protecting civilians.”
Fox News’ Peter Aitken contributed to this report.
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Ryan Gaydos is a senior editor for Fox News Digital.
