GOP Oversight Chair Promises Hearings on DirecTV Dropping Newsmax: ‘Having a Negative Impact on My Congressional District’
Rep. James Comer (R-KY) said the Republican-controlled House will hold hearings on DirecTV’s decision to drop Newsmax from its offerings after the network demanded increases to the carriage fees it receives from the AT&T subsidiary.
DirecTV removed the conservative network on Tuesday, saying in a statement the carrier wanted to “continue to offer the network,” but the outlet’s demands would lead to “significantly higher costs that we would have to pass on to our broad customer base.”
The move comes less than a year after DirecTV dropped another conservative news channel, One America News Network.
Newsmax and conservatives are crying foul, alleging DirecTV and its parent company AT&T are engaged in a plot to censor conservatives.
It is worth mentioning the network’s slot is being replaced with another conservative channel, The First, which features shows hosted by Bill O’Reilly and Dana Loesch.
Comer appeared on the network on Friday, where host Rob Finnerty asked the congressman if he plans to use his oversight powers to investigate DirecTV and AT&T.
“Congress didn’t hold hearings a year ago for OAN because it was OAN and not CNN, and Democrats were in charge,” Finnerty said. “You’re in charge now. Are you gonna hold hearings for Newsmax?”
“Yes,” Comer replied. “There’s gonna be a committee that’s gonna hold hearings.”
The congressman said he is not yet sure which committee will conduct the probe.
“That’s certainly on the agenda,” Comer continued. “I’m very concerned by this. I told the CEO of Newsmax on the phone last week that in my rural Kentucky district that I think Newsmax has some of the highest ratings of any TV channel, including the major networks, so this is very concerning to me.”
He said DirecTV’s decision to drop Newsmax is part of a “pattern” to censor conservatives.
“I’m very concerned that there’s a pattern among a lot of the leaders in the media to censor conservatives,” he said. “So, we’re going to try to get to the bottom of this. I know I’ve been–had several people from AT&T reach out to me. We’re gonna have a meeting with them and hopefully, we can get this resolved. But I don’t like this. This is having a negative impact on my congressional district and I’m gonna do everything I can to see that it gets resolved as soon as possible.”
