Posted on 01/24/2023 5:14:23 PM PST by OneVike
Several dozen Republican lawmakers have voiced serious concerns about DirecTV’s alleged plans to “deplatform” and censor Newsmax from its channel lineup as early as midnight on Tuesday.
Last Friday, Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, and 41 other Republican House members signed a letter sent to AT&T, DirecTV, and hedge fund TPG Capital, the minority operator of the satellite system.
Hunt’s letter stated that the members of the House Republican Conference are “deeply concerned about this undemocratic assault on free speech.”
If Newsmax is deplatformed, it would be the second time AT&T’s DirecTV has deplatformed a major conservative news channel in the past year.
Newsmax, the nation’s fourth highest-rated cable news channel and a top 20 channel overall, has been carried on all major cable systems.
DirecTV has continued to claim that the moves against OAN and Newsmax were for cost-cutting reasons, but dozens of liberal news, information, and entertainment channels — with far less ratings than Newsmax and OAN — have been consistently renewed by DirecTV.
“If Newsmax is removed from DIRECTV, in less than a year House Republicans will have lost two of the three cable news channels that reach conservative voters on a platform that primarily serves conservative-leaning areas of the country,” Hunt stated in his letter.
The letter was signed by some of the most significant members of the House, including the GOP Conference chair, Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, House Oversight Chair James Comer of Kentucky, and Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith of Missouri, among many others.
News that DirecTV could drop Newsmax as early as Tuesday at midnight erupted over social media.
Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., took to Twitter and blasted the move as “absurd,” adding that DirecTV “caved to the woke mob and partisan demands of Democrats to censure Newsmax."
“America deserves to hear ALL points of view!” he tweeted.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
I have been a DRV subscriber for 35 years, if this happened I will cancel my service first thing tomorrow, along with almost 30 million viewers.
I meant DTV, not DRT.
In my anger I failed to check my spelling.
My bad, but I’m mad as hell.
Parallel economies. Someone will have to step in and create a company to host patriot news and entertainment.
It’s not rocket science, Elon.
If DRV refers to DirectTV, I’m confused.
They launched in 1994, 28 yrs ago.
Satellite TV takes up a lot of bandwidth that might be used for other services.
I also meant 25 years, I signed up for DTV in late 1997 about two Months before I joined FRreeRepublic in Feb 1998.
My bad I meant 25 years ago
DirectTV is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Soros/DNC.
We are not subscribed to Direct TV. We stream Newsmax on our smart TV. Download the app and voila.
I left direct 6 months ago. I won’t be back.
They cut WSBTV, Channel 2 News, here in Georgia and they’re quite Left biased. And it was all about costs. WSB is running ads on their own radio news, which reaches a huge audience, telling people to contact DishTV and demand their news channel back and then to cancel their subscription in protest.
Incredibly the Leftist idiots on Public Broadcasting keep getting OUR tax dollars. Their existence was to allow the average people to have a voice for news and opinions not on the mogul controlled big network news with their capitalist advertising backers.
But ALL of the networks already are leftist and there is no need for 100% leftist propaganda from the tax supported network.
The real rarity would be conservative viewpoints on TV, which destroying places like Newsmax means there won’t be any.
I suspect this will impact AT&T U-Verse customers (those who are still grandfathered in, like us). I can’t get my wife to cut the cord and switch to a streaming service.
AT&T and Comcast are two malicious, anti-American corps.
Telecom should be stripped of all media properties.
I feel the same damned way. They keep going up and up and up on prices. They show the same damned movies on Starz channels. All the sports channels are putting their best games on those damned + channels online or phones. I refuse to watch the damned thing anymore. I am about had it with the punks.
The problem is that if Newsmax loses that revenue stream, it seriously jeopardizes their ability to continue operating. I only access Newsmax via Pluto TV, so I’m a streamer like you, but this deeply concerns us all.
ISPs should be subject to the same regulations as public utilities.
Sweet!
I would drop DirecTV over this, but I already dropped it ten years ago.
Newmax does have a Roku App. Not sure how they make any money on that though.
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