A prominent member of the powerful House Oversight and Accountability Committee teased a potentially imminent announcement of a hearing on AT&T DirecTV’s censorship of Newsmax.
“First of all, this situation with DirecTV is something that is just not good; it makes no sense to me why Newsmax is being singled out like this, especially when you compare Newsmax and your viewership to other channels that are on DirecTV,” Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., told Monday’s “Prime News” with Jenn Pellegrino. “That makes no sense at all.”
In the Oversight Committee hearings last week about Twitter’s censorship of the Hunter Biden laptop story, Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., called for a hearing on DirecTV’s removal of Newsmax from its television service.
DirecTV customers call toll free at 877-763-9762 to cancel/complain
Donalds teased a potential announcement on such a hearing might be coming soon.
“This is something where – me and my colleagues – we’re actually looking into this right now as we speak, and so I don’t want to announce anything right now, but we definitely are looking into this,” Donalds told Pellegrino.
“We obviously have an issue with a lot of media companies silencing conservative thought and conservative speech, and the one thing we’re committed to is doing everything we can to put an end to it.”
DirecTV has claimed both Newsmax and OAN were removed as “cost-cutting” measures at the same time the company reported profits last year of $2.7 billion. DirecTV claimed Newsmax was demanding “excessive fees” that would cost them in the “tens of millions” of dollars.
Newsmax has denied these claims, saying it was seeking a fee of about $1 per cable subscriber per year, among the lowest fees asked for in cable, and that total amount of the deal was a fraction of “tens of millions.”
“This was never about the fees being excessive,” Chris Ruddy, CEO of Newsmax, said. “DirecTV’s position has always been that Newsmax of all cable news channels should never get any cable fee whatsoever, not one penny. “
DirecTV continues to carry 22 left-leaning news channels, many with much lower ratings than Newsmax. And of those channels get license fees.
Actions to Take Now
1. DirecTV customers call toll free at 877-763-9762 to cancel/complain.
2. AT&T customers call toll free at 888-855-2338 to cancel/complain for U-verse, cellular and wireless services.
3. Call your congressman or senator at 202-224-3121 and demand they stop AT&T/DirecTV’s censorship of NEWSMAX — ask them to give you a date on the hearings!
4. Go to our online petition and get more info: iWantNewsmax.com.
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