Fox News has dropped adverts for MyPillow after its founder Mike Lindell ‘ran out of money’ following his voting machines defamation case.
Lindell confirmed his company had been axed in a video on his TV network on Friday, claiming he was not given a reason why.
However, sources told Rolling Stone the real reason for the cancelation was Lindell’s failure to pay for the commercials.
Insiders said the adverts were, ‘paused due to the fact Mike Lindell hasn’t been able to finance the commercials’ – an issue they said was communicated ‘at length’.
‘As soon as their account is paid, we would be happy to accept their advertising,’ the source added.
Mike Lindell’s MyPillow adverts have been axed from Fox News amid claims he can no longer afford to pay for them
The election conspiracy theorist was among one of Fox’s largest sources of advertising revenue
MyPillow was previously one of the biggest advertisers with Fox news, according to data from progressive watchdog Media Matters.
Viewers of Sean Hannity’s show and Tucker Carlson’s when he was on air with the broadcaster will be familiar with the commercials, which featured frequently during times when other advertisers have sought to steer clear.
Speaking on his channel, Lindell speculated he had been ‘canceled’ by Fox in the run up to Monday’s Iowa caucuses due to his 2020 election denial or his association with right-wing commentator Lou Dobbs, who was fired by Fox.
‘They know my brand is there right with our great real president Donald Trump,’ Lindell said.
‘Maybe it’s because I brought Lou Dobbs over to my Lindell TV Network this week, but everything is just alarming and suspicious. Why now just out of the blue “you’re canceled”.’
He also begged viewers for support. Lindell has been up front about his financial struggles, which began after he peddled the conspiracy the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump.
He stated the company had been ‘decimated’ and told DailyMail.com he had lost around $200 million in partnership deals after major brands including Walmart and Bed Bath and Beyond pulled their products from his shelves.
He also faces mounting legal debts from defamation cases brought by the voting machine companies he claimed had orchestrated the ‘fraud’.
Lawyers for the entrepreneur confirmed they are owed millions of dollars by Lindell, who they were representing in lawsuits brought by Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems.
Lindell has been upfront about his financial woes since he peddled the conspiracy that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump
Since airing the conspiracy theory, Lindell has become embroiled in expensive legal battles and lost out on partnerships with major retailers costing his company hundreds of millions of dollars
Last year the attorneys filed a motion to quit as his representation, citing non payment of their fees.
Lindell said he understood their decision, saying he is ‘out of money’. He praised his lawyers as courageous, saying he regretted he was unable to pay their fees.
‘We’ve lost everything, every dime,’ Lindell told NBC News. ‘All of it is gone.’
Smartmatic filed a defamation lawsuit seeking over $1 billion and Lindell is a defendant in a similar $1.3 billion lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems that also targets Trump allies Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell.
In April, Fox News settled a lawsuit brought by Dominion with a $787.5 million payment to the company. The broadcaster has since attempted to clamp down on endorsements of election conspiracies, which Lindell has refused to do.
Separately, the bedding mogul was ordered to pay $5 million to a software developer who determined the MyPillow CEO’s data provided to experts was not related to the 2020 presidential election.
Robert Zeidman sued Lindell for the millions promised as part of a ‘Prove Mike Wrong Challenge.’
The MyPillow founder had peddled a data set that he said proved election meddling and promised the cash to anyone who could prove the data wasn’t from the 2020 presidential election.
Voter machine company Smartmatic filed a defamation lawsuit seeking over $1 billion and Lindell is a defendant in a similar $1.3 billion lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems
Lindell has stood by his election fraud claims. In October he had his Wi-Fi monitoring devices banned from Kentucky polling stations. He claimed the so-called ‘WMDs’ would help combat voter fraud by revealing the presence of Wi-Fi links at election booths
In October, Lindell had his $500 Wi-Fi monitoring devices, which he nicknamed WMDs, banned from Kentucky election booths.
The MyPillow CEO said he developed the products, which detect and identify Wi-Fi networks, to make elections more secure.
He claims that the presence of Wi-Fi in voting booths could indicate that votes are being tampered with through machines connected to the internet.
However the devices, which were monitoring boxes strapped to drones, were deemed likely unlawful by state officials.