Members of the Republican National Committee are being urged to get engaged in the fight to return Newsmax to AT&T's DirecTV, which deplatformed the network in January, RNC Chairman Ronna McDaniel said Thursday.
"The RNC has been very vocal," McDaniel said on Newsmax's "National Report." "I've sent letters to all of our members to get engaged. We want to make sure that Newsmax has a platform on DirecTV. We really hope this gets resolved."
It's also good for the United States to have conservative speech available on "every single platform," said McDaniel.
DirecTV customers call toll free at 877-763-9762 to complain, demand Newsmax is returned! Oppose censorship – sign The Petition – Click Here
"We're seeing this over and over again with Twitter, with other instances," McDaniel said. "We just saw Jim Jordan's subpoena [for] big tech. We need to be able to have conservative voices out throughout this country and we hope DirecTV comes to the table and makes that happen."
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.
The platform, a subsidiary of AT&T has 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 the 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 pays all of those channels' carriage fees.
Actions to Take Now
1. DirecTV customers call toll free at 877-763-9762 to complain, demand Newsmax is back on air!
2. 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!
3. Go to our online petition and get more info: iWantNewsmax.com.