Topic: Newsmax
Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy has long been a buddy of President Trump -- it was touting Trump's presidential ambitions way back in 2011 -- and that's finally paying off in a serious way, with Trump promoting Newsmax TV (and its competitor One America News) as he feuds with Fox News.
Immediately after the eleciton, Ruddy parroted the Trump line by repeating his "concern" that Democrats were stealing the election and noting that Newsmax had not called Arizona for Biden the way Fox News did, which he portrayed as "media malpractice." From there, Newsmax was taking shots at its much bigger rival while also engaging in self-promotion. For instance:
- Bret Baier Deletes Tweet After Backlash Against Fox News
- Conservatives Switched to Newsmax TV for Election Coverage
- Newsmax Again Beats Fox Business, CNBC in Ratings
- Bloomberg: Trump at War With Fox, Touts Newsmax
- Newsmax App Downloaded 2 Million Times
Newsmax has also been basking in attention from other media outlets over its Trump-raised profile. It's also brought speculation that someone else could buy it and turn it into a Trump-centric media channel, leading Ruddy to declare that "Newsmax would never become ‘Trump TV,'" though that's what it effectively is already. As Mediaite noted in an interview with Ruddy: "While Ruddy insists Newsmax is a news network and not Trump TV, its current success is mostly based on telling viewers that there is credence to Trump’s false claims he won the election until it was stolen." But he also made sure to flatter his friend, saying on Newsmax TV that a "Trump TV" channel would be successful.
There's also been some backlash to all the attention. A Mediaite commentary called out Ruddy's friendship with the Clintons (though, as we've noted, this hasn't stopped Newsmax from attacking the Clintons), donated tpo other Democratic candidates, and (gasp!) doesn't reflexively despise George Soros.
All in all, it's an interesting time to be Christopher Ruddy right now.
