It’s quite possible that Disney, in an effort to not be further targeted in political battles, wants to avoid controversy by restricting what ads can be placed on the streaming service Hulu, which the company bought in 2019. It’s also possible that the Democrats were trying to run ads that were so misleading that even Hulu — which has had its share of woke, but not entirely successful, content — couldn’t bring itself to run them.
To be honest, it really doesn’t matter. Regardless of the reason why Hulu won’t run the ads, the Democrats are furious that Hulu has declined to run several of them in the run-up to the November midterms.
BREAKING: @Hulu is REJECTING our ads calling out GOP attacks on abortion access and gun safety. Their shady policies amount to outrageous political censorship.
Americans deserve to know the truth about these issues, and Hulu has no right to block it. https://t.co/xEfpgASoBU
— Senate Democrats (@dscc) July 25, 2022
Here’s what the Washington Post is reporting:
The Disney-backed streaming service Hulu is refusing to run political ads on central themes of Democratic midterm campaigns, including abortion and guns, prompting fury from the party’s candidates and leaders.
The streaming service popular among younger voters, which has a policy against running content deemed controversial, is like other digital providers in not being bound by the Communications Act of 1934, a law that requires broadcast television networks to provide politicians equal access to the airwaves.
By the way, I fully expect the Democrats to try and change that last bit, and I’ll explain why in a moment. Back to the story at hand.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Democratic Governors Association tried to purchase joint ads on abortion and guns with Hulu on July 15, along with identical placements on a Disney-affiliated ABC affiliate in Philadelphia and the company’s cable sports channel ESPN. The Hulu ads never ran, while the others did.
“Hulu’s censorship of the truth is outrageous, offensive, and another step down a dangerous path for our country,” the executive directors of the three committees, Christie Roberts, Tim Persico and Noam Lee, said in a statement provided to The Washington Post. “Voters have the right to know the facts about MAGA Republicans’ agenda on issues like abortion — and Hulu is doing a huge disservice to the American people by blocking voters from learning the truth about the GOP record or denying these issues from even being discussed.”
The voters absolutely have a right to know, and the problem for the Democrats is that the voters they really need to reach aren’t watching them spew talking points on live TV anymore.
The Democrats have realized something: There’s probably no chance that they’ll get swing voters, moderates, and certain demographic groups back at this point. The reason they are mad at Hulu is the same reason Joe Biden has decided to make an executive war on climate change his policy of the moment.
At this point, it’s all about getting your most reliable supporters out to the polls. If Biden ended up doing nothing to try to fix climate change, a lot of the climate change issue voters would have stayed home. If the Democrats weren’t trying to codify Roe, Obergefell, and others into law so they can say they’re protecting “reproductive health,” those voters would stay home. They are going to try to do something to bring discouraged black voters to the polls in the coming weeks or months.
And, they have to get young voters out.
Probably the most unreliable voter is the young voter. Voters between the ages of 18 and 25 tend to be inconsistent at best, despite the fact that they tend to be far more progressive than other voters. But between school/college and their social lives, they are rarely truly motivated to go out and vote. So, the Democrats are really hoping to motivate those voters to get out and try to mitigate the damage that their own policies have done to the turnout.
The problem is that those young voters don’t watch live TV, where political ads will be dominating broadcasts for the rest of the summer and through the fall. So, Democrats want to take advantage of where young voters are: Streaming services that allow advertising.
Hulu is one of the biggest out there. YouTube allows political ads. Hulu has in the past, too. But Hulu is, for whatever reason, heavily moderating the ads they’re running. One politician had to change their ad for it to run on the service. But if they can’t try to scare young voters into going to the polls through Hulu ads, then they’re losing a platform they desperately need.
You can expect more screeching about this, too. And some legislative or executive attempts to force Hulu to do it. Because remember: It’s not censorship if a platform blocks content, unless that content is approved by your side.