DirecTV faced a choice in January: Agree to start paying a monthly fee to Newsmax, a small right-wing channel that it had been distributing for free for seven years; or drop the channel and incur its wrath. DirecTV chose the latter—and Newsmax recast a simple business dispute as a shocking act of political censorship. Now Republican leaders like Donald Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene are demanding Newsmax's restoration.
Disputes over these so-called “carriage fees” are fairly common. But in my two decades covering cable television, I have never seen anything that escalated like this. So I took a closer look at all the sides of the argument to assess what it says about the state of television, politics, and culture. The bottom line: DirecTV’s decision makes total business sense, but Newsmax's emotional appeal trumps the other side’s cold hard math—and it still may force DirecTV to cut a deal.
