Deals between cable and satellite television providers and television networks can often be complex and involve negotiations over a variety of factors such as distribution rights, advertising revenue, and programming costs. 

Last month, DirecTV dropped Newsmax from its lineup after a dispute over carrier fees. Newsmax TV often features opinions and perspectives that align with the views of the Republican Party. It has been described as having a “pro-Donald Trump” bias and has been criticized for spreading misinformation. 

NewsMax TV is owned by Newsmax Media, which was founded by Christopher Ruddy. On Sunday, Ruddy joined WLW’s Bill Cunningham to discuss the controversy involving the removal of his network from millions of homes. 

“AT&T owns DirecTV, and they removed us from 13 million homes,” said Ruddy. “This is the second conservative channel they have removed in the past year. You may recall One America News Network (OAN) was removed and that all happened after Nancy Pelosi and the House Democrats wrote a letter to AT&T and other cable companies saying why are you keeping OAN, NewsMax, and Fox News, we want them deplatformed for misinformation in the election.” 

The 2020 U.S. Presidential election was marked by a significant amount of misinformation and false information being spread, particularly through social media. This included false claims about voter fraud, manipulated images and videos, and misleading information about the voting process and results. The spread of misinformation was fueled by various factors, including partisan interests, foreign interference, and a proliferation of false news stories on social media platforms.

“It’s very similar to the story that we’re hearing about Twitter where the government worked with the FBI and Twitter to censor and trick conservatives and conservative organizations, it’s a frightening thing that’s taking place in America,” Ruddy said. “We’re fighting back and we’re urging other people to fight back.” 

Ruddy stated that the American public deserves to hear different opinions represented in the media. He said those opinions promote diversity of thought. He also said the media plays a crucial role in shaping public opinion and providing information to the public.

“We are the fourth highest-rated cable news channel,” he said. “Our Nielsen numbers also show that half of our audience is Democrat and independent voters. They don’t like that we’re reaching those folks. Hunter Biden’s laptop, they basically told us that it was Russian disinformation. It’s now confirmed it is his laptop. Newsmax was banned from all sorts of social media, we were not allowed to cover that story. This is a violation of basic Constitutional rights.”