DirecTV has reportedly dropped Newsmax from its channel lineup, and many conservative media pundits — as well as Congressional Republicans — are not happy with the move, including Mike Gallagher.
During his show Wednesday, Gallagher railed against the move by DirecTV, saying “deplatforming” the conservative cable channel is “the latest development in the left’s ongoing campaign to purge voices they disagree with from the public sphere.”
“This is a political decision to censor conservative media and Congressman (Wesley) Hunt (R-TX) — part of the Republican majority in the House — sent a letter to DirecTV, and its owners AT&T, co-signed by 41 other Republican lawmakers ahead of Newsmax being deplatformed,” Gallagher said. “As I understand it, they are gone. Newsmax is off as of 11:59 PM last night.”
Gallagher then quoted Hunt’s letter to DirecTV, stating that “Newsmax is one of the most watched cable news channels in America; millions of people turn to Newsmax as a source of trusted information.”
According to cable news ratings for Monday, January 20th, Newmax’s most-watched show was The Chris Salcedo Show — airing at 4:00 PM ET — which garnered 221,000 total viewers.
“I am sure that DirecTV will claim that removing Newsmax from their lineup of channels was purely a business decision,” Hunt wrote, “but that is hard to accept when liberal news channels like Vice Media continue to remain on the air. Vice is a ratings failure for DirecTV, yet they continue to profit from their relationship with DirecTV.”
