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Chris Ruddy, the chief executive officer of Newsmax, joined the Todd Starnes Show to slam the latest censoring of popular cable television network by DirecTV.
“Newsmax was censored by DirecTV. AT&T owns DirecTV, and they censored us in 13 million U.S. homes last Wednesday. And now those people are deprived of a major cable news channel.” Ruddy told Starnes.
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Even though Newsmax is the fourth most-watched cable news network in the United States, DirecTV made the decision to pull the plug on the network.
“I don’t know their motive. I can tell you they don’t seem to like conservatives. Right. They had two conservative channels that were pretty popular. Newsmax and One America News. They got rid of both of them. They haven’t de-platformed any liberal channels at all. In fact, they renew them all.”
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The following is a rush transcript from the Todd Starnes Show, which airs daily from noon – 3:00 p.m. EST.
TODD STARNES: [00:00:00] Glad to have you with us. 8447478868 is the telephone number. That’s a toll-free number. 8447478868. We know many of you have been lighting up the phones over at AT&T headquarters and DirecTV’s headquarters. So many of you folks are infuriated over the decision to remove Newsmax from the platform. I want to go right now to the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker Line. We’re honored to have the chief executive officer, the head honcho at Newsmax TV, with us, Chris Ruddy. Chris, good to have you on the show today. [00:00:14][14.6]
CHRIS RUDDY: [00:00:36] Well, Todd, always great to be on with you. I’m glad that we can have the opportunity to communicate directly with you and your listeners because right now, Newsmax was censored by DirecTV. AT&T owns DirecTV, and they censored us in 13 million U.S. homes last Wednesday. And now those people are deprived of a major cable news channel. We were the fourth-highest news channel in a very clear act of censorship. It was the second channel that AT&T and DirecTV deplatforms. They did one last year called One America OAN. And we’re fighting back, and we need your help. [00:01:13][37.7]
TODD STARNES: [00:01:14] And that’s one of the reasons we have opened up this platform to you and the whole team over at Newsmax. And whatever needs to be done, whatever needs to be done, whatever needs to be communicated, we’re here to make that happen. And Chris, I know our listeners have been calling and getting these crazy responses and reactions from Direct TV. They’re saying, Oh, no, this is Newsmax’s decision. They’re the ones that decided to remove themselves from the platform. How do you respond to all of that? [00:01:41][26.7]
CHRIS RUDDY: [00:01:41] Well, it’s not true. We want it to be renewed there. Direct TV gave us, and they said they would renew us, but they would never give us cable fees. Everybody gets in cable news and gets a license fee. But they said that Newsmax was not eligible for a fee, that we should never get any fee, even one penny. And obviously, we get we are eligible for cable fees under other agreements that would zero out. We’ve been discriminated against. 22 liberal news channels have lower ratings, most of them have lower ratings than Newsmax, and they get higher fees than we requested. Let me tell you what we were requesting. We were asking for about a dollar per year per cable subscriber. Just a dollar per year. I know you’ve been in the cable business, so, you know, this is extremely low. CNN get $14 a year, and we have half their ratings in many dayparts. We should be eligible for 5 to $7. What we’re asking for is a dollar. We had major cable agreements last year, three major ones, and they all signed for this because it was so inexpensive. So this is a very fair deal. They’re not saving you any money. This is a company DirectTV made $2.7 billion last year. And they’re telling you that they’re doing us some favor by putting us on free. They know that as a cable channel, you can’t go free. You can’t make it just on advertising. And why? Why should Newsmax be treated differently than CNN, MSNBC, Fox, or any little channel? And I can show you so many of them with no rating that gets three or $4. [00:03:19][97.5]
TODD STARNES: [00:03:20] It’s a great question, Chris. And again, going back to the coverage, I just so suspect when you look at what they did to one American to use, but more so, you guys, which are, I mean, you guys are a powerhouse now in cable news. People are flocking to Newsmax every single day. And we hear this from our listeners. So I’m wondering how much of this is straight politics, mainly because you have been the only network to broadcast these Trump speeches whenever he was out on the road over the summer? [00:03:43][22.9]
CHRIS RUDDY: [00:03:54] Well, I don’t know their motive. I can tell you they don’t seem to like conservatives. Right. They had two conservative channels that were pretty popular. Newsmax and one America. They got rid of both of them. They haven’t de-platformed any liberal channels at all. In fact, they renew them all. We never hear this is an issue at all. This is woke corporate America at work. We know AT&T doesn’t like Trump. I could go into the history of it. AT&T used to own just recently got rid of CNN, but it was very weaponized against Republicans and Trump under them. So if you know CNN, that was AT&T, too. So these are not people that most of your listeners, I think, are very sympathetic to or would agree with on their viewpoint, which is fine. I’m sorry. They keep talking about diversity, except when it comes to conservative voices. So we’re really urging people if you’re a direct TV person, President Trump issued a statement last week. He’s urging people to cancel their direct TV. Don’t believe the lies when you call them. We’re not in negotiations. We didn’t want to ask for a lot of money. They did put a little concern. Rid of Commentary Channel. It’s not a news channel in our slot. There are many options. Dish Network on satellite carries us on all the major other operator’s carriers, so you can find us very easily. But if you can’t, I would like you to know you can cancel by calling eight seven, seven, the number seven, and then the word Newsmax. Eight, seven, seven, seven, and then Newsmax. And you’ll get directly connected. And you can either complain or tell them that you’re planning on canceling. But a lot of people we hear are canceling. President Trump actually went beyond that. He said he has Direct TV and AT&T phones, and he’s canceling all those AT&T phones and wireless. So, Americans, you can stand with us on this even if you’re not a DirecTV customer. [00:05:49][115.2]
TODD STARNES: [00:05:51] And I think that’s what you have to do, Chris: we’ve got to fight back against this wokeness that has infected corporate America. And we’re seeing this daily, supporting organizations and companies that share our values. You know, we direct people to Patriot mobile. They’re a big-time supporter of our show and don’t buy into all that woke nonsense out there. But what I what. [00:05:53][1.4]
CHRIS RUDDY: [00:06:14] I love that Patriot mobile, and Donald Jr said everybody should switch from AT&T to patriot mobile, which supports conservative causes. [00:06:24][9.6]
TODD STARNES: [00:06:25] Promo code. Todd, by the way. [00:06:26][1.5]
CHRIS RUDDY: [00:06:28] Yeah, yeah, definitely. TODD But. [00:06:30][2.4]
TODD STARNES: [00:06:31] But. [00:06:31][0.0]
CHRIS RUDDY: [00:06:31] You know, Todd. [00:06:31][0.2]
TODD STARNES: [00:06:32] Chris, when you look at the great work that Newsmax is doing and really over the past year or so, I mean, the news product has been beefed up. It’s just straight down the middle. You guys are letting the viewers decide for themselves. And it’s just good journalism. And it troubles me that a corporation like Direct TV would silence that. [00:06:49][16.7]
CHRIS RUDDY: [00:06:54] Todd, This is a very dangerous moment. I’m not just saying it because I own Newsmax. I’ve been in the media for almost 30 years. We are the number four top-rated cable news channel in the nation. According to Nielsen, we reached 25 million Americans. Hundreds of congressmen, senators, and other officials around the country always come on Newsmax. We’re a real news channel. We’re fair and balanced, too. We’re, as you know, we’re fair. We treat we even have liberals on occasionally and get everybody’s perspective. But Sarah Palin issued a statement yesterday on her Instagram, and we have the story up on Newsmax.com right now. She basically said she believes that the de-platforming and censoring of Newsmax is the beginning of socialism in America. They’re taking off the number four cable news channel nationwide, and they did it for one purpose. They’re targeting us politically because I can show you everyone else gets the cable they said to Newsmax. You can’t even get one penny. We’re not ever going to give you a cable fee. Why would they tell us, as a conservative channel we’re not eligible, but everybody else does? In America, that’s discrimination. And I think it’s a prima facie case. It’s apparent and obvious right in your face. Somebody else called this a brazen act by AT&T that they would do this right. But with the elections coming up, they’re afraid of having voices. And we’ve seen this in big tech on Twitter, Facebook, and Google. They’re closing down conservative voices. And unless we stand up. So I’m asking people to join us. And they mentioned there’s an easy way if you want to join with us; if you are directed at a customer or just an American like you and me that are fighting for what we believe in, against censorship of free speech, they can text the word on their cell phone truth if you text truth to 30 9-747 like the plane. So it’s true. 230 9-747. We’ll get all the numbers to need the petition that we have, and you’ll be part of our army going out after these guys and trying to fight the woke stuff because we’re in battle mode here, and we really appreciate the support of your listeners. It’s been really important to us. [00:09:09][135.1]
TODD STARNES: [00:09:11] All right, folks, you’ve heard your marching orders from Chris Ruddy, and we’ve got all those links in those numbers on our live show blog. So we made it really simple for you to go and do that. And then we want you to call our show and hear from you what Direct TV is telling you. 844747, eight, six, eight is our telephone number. Chris, we really appreciate your taking time out of your schedule to talk with us. Many fans around here, and we appreciate the great work the team at Newsmax is doing. [00:09:24][13.0]
CHRIS RUDDY: [00:09:44] You have been tremendous on time. We appreciate your support, and we’ll keep fighting and abreast of everything. We have daily announcements. What President Trump’s going to do next. Again, text the word truth to 30 9747. And we’ll get that information to you right away. All right, great. [00:09:47][3.7]
TODD STARNES: [00:10:03] It is free. All right. Text truth to 30 9747. Chris Ruddy, the chief executive officer at Newsmax. Chris, thanks a lot. Now. [00:10:03][0.0]
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