Last week, the cable provider DirecTV announced that it will be dropping the conservative news network Newsmax from its channel lineup and a handful of Republican senators, led by Senator Ted Cruz, are up in arms about it.
Per a statement from representatives for DirecTV, the decision was made after the two parties failed to come to an agreement after a back and forth regarding rate increases, but the GOP senators are seeing a different motive there.
On Wednesday, a letter written by Cruz along with Lindsey Graham, Mike Lee and Tom Cotton was reported on by The Hill in which they demand answers from DirecTV's corporate leadership as to why they made the decision to no longer offer the channel as part of their package offerings.
"DirecTV's decision follows recent revelations of collusion between Big Tech companies and Democrat officials to label conservative speech as 'misinformation' and censor it," Cruz and the other senators wrote in their letter. "The silencing of conservative speech at the request of government officials is a direct assault on free speech and a threat to democracy."
I have serious concerns about DirecTV’s decision to drop Newsmax. It’s time for answers.
— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) February 1, 2023
https://t.co/uHGwcUcKqh
According to The Hill, the senators are requesting information as to whether "DirecTV, or its parent company, AT&T, communicated with any federal, state, or local government officials," prior to dropping the network, which has favorably covered Trump and other likeminded conservatives.
On Wednesday afternoon, Newsmax ran an article on the senators going to bat for them, detailing action points for how others can join in. In addition to listing a toll free number that people can call to "demand they bring Newsmax back on air," they write in bold print that Trump personally urges users to cancel DirecTV as a result of the network being pulled.
"If DirecTV tells you we are still negotiating, that is a lie!," said Newsmax "They have told Newsmax we will never be on a regular cable channel. DirecTV also replaced Newsmax with a channel that has no news and no ratings. Also, Newsmax's livestream is ending soon on other platforms, so unless you get it on DirecTV you will have to cancel their service."
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has also chimed in on the matter, according to Deadline, saying "I think there should be no ideological litmus test when you have these big companies that have the decision to make or break a news network, or any type of network. They will give different rationales for why they don't want to do it, but the reality is they have so much other content that is very lightly viewed, and they keep that on, and it seems it is the One America News and the Newsmax that are being targeted. So I think it does warrant an investigation."
DeSantis is urging Congress to take up the investigation.
