Three weeks into its carriage dispute with Newsmax, DirecTV has called out the ultra-conservative media company for using its "news/editorial platform" to wage what it views as simply a business negotiation.
"It’s troubling that Newsmax is using its news/editorial platform to publish inaccurate and misleading information regarding our contract dispute," wrote Michael Hartman, general counsel and chief external affairs officer for DirecTV.
"Each day, the news outlet is publishing nearly two dozen blogs on its website and dozens of posts on its main social handle, creating targeted content for its commentators, leveraging its network of contributors and dedicating significant airtime each hour to our business dispute," Hartman added. "In our view these efforts are obscuring facts in pursuit of Newsmax’s own commercial interests, not elucidating the news."
On Tuesday afternoon, Next TV simply plugged in the keyword "DirecTV" into a Google News search. The entire first page of the search, totaling 10 news items, consisted of Newsmax digital articles, all of which focused on Republican lawmakers and other conservative leaders condemning DirecTV for dropping Newsmax.
Hartman's letter was in response to another letter sent last week on behalf of Newsmax by Bryan E. Leib, a frequent commentator on the channel. The letter was signed by other conservative Jewish leaders, including Alan Dershowitz, an attorney for former president Donald Trump, and Joseph Lieberman, a former U.S. Senator who notably defected from the Democratic Party
With Newsmax using its platform to describe the letter as a referendum to DirecTV delivered straight from "Jewish leaders," Hartman's response to Leib was cc-ed to the 23 leaders who signed the Newsmax letter, assuring them that the matter is a "business dispute that has nothing to do with ideology, politics or censorship.
"We continue to be willing to negotiate with Newsmax in good faith, but believe it is our duty to protect our customers and preserve our right to provide the network at the right price, if we choose to do so," Hartman added.
Both sides agree that the dispute stems from DirecTV's unwillingness to up its licensing compensation to Newsmax. The channel said it wants the equivalent of $1 a year for each of DirecTV's 13 million subscribers. Previously, the deal consisted only of the two sides sharing advertising revenue.
DirecTV has framed its carriage dispute with Newsmax -- as well as an earlier impasse with another far right channel, One America News (OAN) -- as garden-variety business disputes. Notably, DirecTV -- which lost an estimated 500,000 customers in the third quarter -- also ditched Bloomberg News in 2021 following a 25-year partnership with the channel.
However, one key fact has emerged in the three weeks since Newsmax left the pay TV operator's programming grids: There's nothing usual at all about this asymmetrical carriage fight.
While the media company DirecTV is battling is small in stature, it has shown the means and ability to attract influential conservative lawmakers to its side. And as Newsmax's letter late last week revealed, this capability extends past the obvious politically opportunistic elements of the current Congressional House GOP leadership.
Newsmax's founder and CEO, Chris Ruddy, has an extensive resume -- and the contacts that come with it -- that includes public policy training at the London School of Economics, a stint as an investigative reporter at Rupert Murdoch's New York Post, and a term of undergrad study at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Among Ruddy's many conservative bonafides, he studied as a media fellow at the Hoover Institution and is a member of the International Council headed by Henry Kissinger.
Notably, Ruddy once served as a representative of a U.S. delegation led by Lieberman and Sen. Lindsay Graham to NATO's 44th Munich Security Conference.
Perhaps as a result, a company drawing only 0.01% of the total U.S. TV audience has seemingly turned powerful political components in Washington, even Democratic ones, against what is still the third largest pay TV operator in America ... one majority owned by AT&T, a telecom that in the past has revealed decidedly conservative political leanings.
As she tries to sway Senate Republicans in her third attempt to join the five-member FCC Commission, Democratic nominee Gigi Sohn said that DirecTV should in fact be investigated by the FCC for its role in the "deplatforming" of both Newsmax and OAN.
