Conservative news network Newsmax announced that it has renewed deals with all of its major cable operators — Comcast, Charter, DirecTV, DISH and Verizon Fios — and “picked up more than 5 million households.”
Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy was recently asked about the impact of “his longtime friend Donald Trump” on the renewed carriages and replied: “I think President Trump has added great difficulty to Newsmax because there’s so much hostility in the industry and world against him. The media establishment, but also in the cable industry, he’s not a really liked figure.”
Ruddy elaborated: “We were having more success I felt before he was elected in 2016. I think we probably would have gotten more carriage earlier had he not been elected,” he said.
Ruddy suggested most of the cable operators renewed Newsmax due to its “fair” coverage. Ruddy said: “We try to reach out to both sides,” and cited on-camera political advisor Rick Santorum (2012 GOP presidential candidate who endorsed Trump in 2016) and Greta Van Susteren as voices on Newsmax that are critical of Trump.
[Note: In 2017, then-President Trump accused the owners of MSNBC (NBC and Comcast) of firing Van Susteren “because she refused to go along w/ ‘Trump hate!”]
Ruddy reports that he’s interested in holding a debate with Trump and Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. “We haven’t got a firm no from either party at this point,” he said.
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