CHARLESTON — West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has sent a letter to the CEO of DirecTV about his concerns over the company’s recent cancellation of Newsmax.
“It’s been two years coming that this company was pressured by left-wing lawmakers to silence conservative news channels,” Morrisey said. “While some may object to the views and opinions expressed on Newsmax, the same is true of liberal-leaning channels such as MSNBC.”
DirecTV dropped Newsmax this week. In a statement, the company said it wanted to continue to offer Newsmax, but it said the channel’s demands for carriage fee increases would have led to “significantly higher costs that we would have to pass on to our broad customer base.”
On January 27, DirecTV said it was adding The First, a conservative opinion and commentary network in the coming days. The First features shows with former Fox News anchor Bill O’Reilly and former One America News host Liz Wheeler.
Last year, DirecTV also dropped OAN, a favorite of President Donald Trump. DirecTV says it did so because of the network’s promotion of misinformation.
“Giving in to demands for politically motivated corporate censorship will only breed more demands in the future,” Morrisey wrote in his letter. “Neither DirecTV nor the channels it carries should face an ongoing concern over whether programming is acceptable to powerful political elites.”
Newsmax officials say DirecTV’s decision is based on political bias, claiming it amounts to nothing more than censorship against conservative news organizations.
In his letter, Morrisey says two members of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology sent a letter to DirecTV’s parent company and others urging it to stop carrying conservative media outlets two years ago.
“A healthy diversity of daily news programming is an essential part of our public discourse,” Morrisey wrote. “A large American media company should stand fast against such pressure to stifle dissenting and alternative opinions.
“The last thing our country needs right now is corporate censorship of conservative voices at the behest of members of Congress and others seeking to cut off debate by limiting the reach of those that disagree with them.”