On Tuesday night host Sean Spicer asked Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., about Cincinnati Bell’s decision to drop Newsmax from its cable line-up and censor the nation’s 4th highest-rated cable news channel.
Sen. Paul gave a stinging response, urging conservatives to cut business ties with companies like Cincinnati Bell that embrace “woke” values and oppose conservatives.
On January 1st of this year, while Newsmax was in the middle of negotiations with its cable cooperative, Cincinnati Bell removed Newsmax from its cable systems across 50,000 homes throughout Ohio and northern Kentucky.
At the time of its cancellation, Cincinnati Bell made several false claims to customers about the cancellation.
The company stated that Newsmax was demanding too high a price.
But there was never a fixed price as negotiations were on-going, and Newsmax eventually came to a full and fair agreement with Cincinnati Bell’s agent.
Sen. Paul argued that customers should simply drop companies like Cincinnati Bell and turn to streaming devices for television.
“Ultimately, the market, we have to let them know they have to a penalty,” he said, adding “Quit buying them!”
“Whoever controls the cable and satellites doesn’t want conservative TV, we shouldn’t use them,” Paul told Spicer.
“We’re 40 percent of the country, people watching Newsmax, conservative TV, and they don’t want us,” the Senator said with disdain.
Last week, Josh Mandel, the former Ohio state treasurer and the frontrunner in the 2022 Republican Senate race, told Spicer & Co. that he would ''take on any company'' ... ''if they're trampling our First Amendment rights.''
''First of all, shame on Cincinnati Bell,'' Mandel said of their Newsmax cancellation.
In a statement Cincinnati Bell called its termination a “business decision” and referred to Newsmax's negotiating demands as ''unreasonable.'
But Newsmax noted that it never negotiated with Cincinnati Bell directly, but rather with its representative, the NCTC, a national cable cooperative.
"Those negotiations were ongoing, and there was never any reason to claim we were making unreasonable demands as there were never any final numbers," a Newsmax spokesman stated.
The network noted that Cincinnati Bell, in the middle of those negotiations, and without notice to subscribers or Newsmax, halted transmission of the network into about 50,000 Bell customers' homes.
Newsmax noted it continues to be carried in 54 million cable homes and in most NCTC covered systems.
Newsmax has stated that "Cincinnati Bell's decision wasn't about business or price, it's all about woke politics and Bell closing down a conservative voice from their customers."
Bell continues to carry 11 liberal news channels on its basic guide, most of which have lower ratings and cost the cable operator more in fees than Newsmax.
Newsmax is the 4th highest-rated cable news channel and a top 20 cable channel with higher ratings than 80 percent of the channels in Bell's basic cable lineup.
"Cincinnati Bell is paying dozens of channels more money that have far less viewership than Newsmax," Newsmax stated. "Customers can draw their own conclusions about this ‘business decision.'”
Newsmax has encouraged its viewers to cancel their subscriptions to Cincinnati Bell and find Newsmax on another service such as Spectrum, Directv, Dish, Fubo, and AT&T TV, among others.
Newsmax urges Bell customers to complain and cancel directly by calling their toll free number, 1-877-649-6332.
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