06 Feb 2023 U.S. Corporations and Government Collude to Cancel Conservative Voices
AT&T has once again demonstrated its intention to control which news and opinions its DirecTV subscribers will be allowed to hear.
And, as Free Enterprise Project (FEP) Director Scott Shepard notes, “We’ve seen that there is both collusion and intimidation by [the Biden] administration of news sources and social media sources.”
A year after announcing that it was dropping the right-leaning One America News Network from its platform, DirecTV has now dropped Newsmax TV from all of its platforms as well.
Spokespeople from the National Center’s Free Enterprise Project and Project 21 leadership network have decried this move.
Whitley Yates
“I really find it interesting that corporations feel that they can cancel conservative voices,” Project 21 ambassador Whitley Yates said on Newsmax TV’s “American Agenda.” “They say that there’s different news for different views, but if they don’t provide us an option or an outlet… to see it, then they too are a part of cancel culture. So if you stand for free speech and if you stand against censorship, then you should be calling DirecTV and AT&T and making sure that Newsmax is not only available but that it stays available on all networks.”
Christopher Arps
“We were very honored to have Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy on yesterday to talk about DirecTV’s decision last week to cancel or deplatform Newsmax,” Project 21 ambassador Christopher Arps said on Newsmax TV’s “Wake Up America” a day after hosting Ruddy on his own radio show on NewsTalkSTL. “DirecTV is trying to give this message that this was an economic decision that they made, that Newsmax was just asking for way too much money, and as Mr. Ruddy said, Newsmax is asking for a dollar from each subcriber a year. And you have liberal channels who are receiving 10-15 times as much… And this is the second conservative network to be cancelled.”
Free Enterprise Project Director Scott Shepard has discussed AT&T’s decision on radio programs such as “The Bill Martinez Show” and WSHO’s “The Current Word,” and also sat down with OAN’s Stella Escobedo, with whom he noted that this move is an example of a larger systemic issue.
On OAN, Scott and Stella discussed how a letter sent to AT&T CEO John Stankey two years ago by U.S. Reps. Anna Eshoo and Jerry McNerney — which Scott referred to as “pure political intimidation — and related congressional hearings on “misinformation” are examples of the pressure put on corporations to kowtow to liberal activists and censor conservative voices.
We’ve seen that there is both collusion and intimidation by this administration of news sources and social media sources. I hope and trust that the new House of Representatives will have its own investigations and will look into that collusion, because at base what’s going on is that government officials and the heads of corporations are working together to deny Americans their civil rights, to undertake censorship that the government couldn’t undertake if it was acting alone. That’s a criminal offense.
Newsmax is urging three points of action for those who want to speak out against DirecTV’s most recent censorship: cancelling DirecTV subscriptions, contacting congressional leaders and signing a petition. You can take action from its website here: https://www.iwantnewsmax.com/