Newsmax’s CEO, Chris Ruddy, sells his network to conservative, pro-free market viewers. But when his competitors seek room to grow in that market, he seems remarkably comfortable with the left-wing Washington D.C. establishment keeping them down.
Take, for examples, his recent campaign against Fox’s proposed acquisition of Roku, his opposition to broadcast deregulation, and his endorsement of Biden FCC nominee Gigi Sohn. What might be dismissed as individual incidents are actually a remarkable pattern of behavior. Flatly: Ruddy’s commercial interests keep finding common ground with the political left.
His historic Clinton connection provides useful context.
In 2015, Newsmax made a 5-year, $1 million pledge to the Clinton Foundation. The network’s own coverage acknowledged the commitment, with Ruddy personally advancing a preponderance of excuses about it.
Ahead of that fateful 2016 election that would send Donald Trump to the White House, Ruddy was helping fund the Clinton empire. Shame on him, of course.
A leopard clearly never changes his spots. Ruddy’s renewed efforts to constrain competing media organizations raises burning questions about what his and Newsmax’s version of conservatism actually delivers.
In September, Semafor reported that Ruddy and allies in the White House had pressed Trump Justice Department antitrust officials to block Fox’s $22 billion acquisition of Roku. The report cited people familiar with the matter, as well as communications reviewed by the outlet. The campaign followed Newsmax’s litigation against Fox, which alleges exclusionary distribution arrangements. Clearly, this is a back and forth media mess being played out in Washington, D.C., subsidized by you, the taxpayer.
Semafor says Fox characterised the litigation as an attempt to “sue their way out of their own competitive failures.” It’s not a bad point, and a fairly wounding dig.
Should conservative media companies win viewers by producing better journalism and building themselves up better, as Real America’s Voice has done? Or should they seek government intervention when their competitors become harder and harder to beat?
Further still, Ruddy has opposed efforts to remove the FCC’s national television ownership cap, a subject we reported on earlier this year, at length. This cap limits a station group’s reach to 39 percent of American television households. Newsmax, a national cable network, faces no equivalent restriction. So why should they care? In fact, they love this government restriction on the free press.
In July, former FCC adviser Evan Swarztrauber argued that Ruddy’s position protected Newsmax against stronger competitors, including Sinclair and Nexstar, the owner of NewsNation. This put Ruddy firmly in the same camp as Elizabeth Warren.
Conservatives should be willing to scrutinize this outdated arrangement. A regulatory advantage for Ruddy hardly advances the interest of the viewer. At all, we would argue.
Ruddy’s willingness to support a Democratic regulator was readily apparent during the Biden government’s regrettable years. He backed Gigi Sohn’s nomination to the FCC, despite her track record of attacking conservative outlets.
The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board highlighted her description of Fox News as “state-sponsored propaganda” as well as her suggestion that Sinclair’s broadcast licence be revoked. Ruddy explained his support by invoking the FCC’s role in promoting diversity, localism, and competition. Yeah, right.
The established pattern warrants honest interpretation: competition becomes a cause for regulatory concern when it threatens Newsmax, while a progressive nominee becomes acceptable when she might help independent networks secure distribution.
Ruddy can defend those choices as business decisions. But conservative viewers can judge them for what they are.
We know that Chris Ruddy was recently lobbying members of the Judiciary Committee to kill Adam Candeub’s nomination to serve as Assistant Attorney General. Candeub has consistently stood against Big Tech censorship and market consolidation. He has been a vocal advocate for Trump admin efforts to modernize media regulations, allowing broadcasters to better compete with Big Tech platforms for advertising dollars and market share.
As we reported in January this year, Ruddy’s efforts in lobbying President Trump simply for the interests of his own personal fortunes will scarcely be appreciated by his albeit diminishing conservative audience.
