Newsmax Media CEO Christopher Ruddy
Credit: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
“Fox News is dead.” Those four words in Donald Trump’s tweet shortly before Christmas may have been more an expression of hope than fact, but they were telling nonetheless.
For much of the Trump presidency there has been something close to a mind-meld between Rupert Murdoch’s conservative cable news channel and the Oval Office occupant.
Mr Trump did endless interviews with Fox News, more than any other media outlet. He hired Fox executives to his White House. The channel’s biggest stars in turn backed his stances and echoed his attacks.
But on election results night on November 3 something broke. Mr Trump was infuriated when Fox called Arizona, a critical Republican-held swing state, for his rival Joe Biden before any other channel.
Aides took to the airways to decry the move as premature. Mr Trump reportedly called Mr Murdoch directly to demand the call be retracted. Yet on the night and beyond it remained shaded Democratic blue.
In the weeks that followed Mr Trump railed against Fox. “Can’t believe how badly Fox News is doing in the ratings,” the president also said in that December 16 tweet. “Really sad!”
Can’t believe how badly @FoxNews is doing in the ratings. They played right into the hands of the Radical Left Democrats, & now are floating in limboland. Hiring fired @donnabraziIe, and far worse, allowing endless negative and unedited commercials. @FoxNews is dead. Really Sad!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 16, 2020
That dynamic, of the most prominent Republican politician in America publicly turning his back on Fox — even while still doing interviews — has opened the gap for other right-of-centre outlets.
One in particular seems well-placed to capitalise: Newsmax.
The business was launched in 1998 with a deliberate attempt to offer heartland America a conservative take on the news, especially politics.
It began as a website and a magazine, soon picking up clout among Republicans. Come 2008, Sarah Palin, facing a backlash after struggling to name newspapers she read during her vice presidential run, singled out the title among others in a clean-up interview.
In 2014, they launched a cable channel, Newsmax TV. At the time Fox News was — and remains — the dominant force in conservative television, in audience and clout. But since the election Newsmax has surged in viewers.
In the most competitive ‘prime time’ cable slots the channel averaged just 58,000 watchers before election day. But afterwards, some of its top shows jumped up to 1.1 million viewers.
So too online: The Guardian reported the number of Facebook user ‘interactions’ with Newsmax on the site jumped from 500,000 a week at the start of 2020 to 7.3 million in the first week of November.
The channel is available in roughly 70 million of the 90 million American homes with cable. Plus — unlike Fox News, which is behind a paywall — it is free to stream online.
Donald Trump is due to leave the White House on January 20
Credit: MANDEL NGAN
/AFP
Chris Ruddy, Newsmax’s CEO and founder, projected optimism down the phone line when he spoke to The Daily Telegraph the week before Christmas.
“There’s been a real desire to change from Fox,” Mr Ruddy said of US conservatives, laying out his argument for why he thinks his company can soar in the post-President Trump years.
“It’s getting stale. A lot of Trump people didn’t like it because it has not been consistently supportive of Trump.”
Mr Ruddy, 55, is well-versed in the US political landscape. He was a reporter on the Bill Clinton beat, pursuing controversies of his presidency, before launching the company.
Mr Ruddy is also a close friend of Mr Trump. The pair cross paths often in Palm Beach — Mr Ruddy is a member of the president’s Mar-a-Lago golf resort in Florida — and talk regularly.
In the intensifying war of the US media’s Right, the channel that can host Mr Trump, whose hold on the Republican base was reinforced even in election defeat by picking up 11 million more votes in 2020 and 2016, has a lot to gain.
Newsmax is not the only conservative TV channel looking to eat into Fox News’s share. One America News Network, another right-wing upstart, has also become a Trump favourite with its unrelentingly supportive tone.
So will Mr Ruddy offer Mr Trump a Newsmax show? “We’ve had no discussions on it,” Mr Ruddy said, keeping his cards close to his chest even as he played down the chance of exclusivity.
“We would enjoy him being part of Newsmax. I can’t see him being aligned to just one channel. He’s an omnivore when it comes to media, he loves all media.”
With Newsmax’s growth has come extra scrutiny, not least since the election. The tone of coverage has been sympathetic towards Mr Trump’s unproven and deeply controversial claims of mass voter fraud.
The channel waited more than a month to call Joe Biden “president-elect”, a point of difference from Fox News that at times it seemed to revel in.
A lot of air time was also given to Trump allies pushing baseless claims that election system machines owned by the companies Smartmatic and Dominion rigged the vote count to give Mr Biden victory.
Both have issued categorical denials and shortly before Christmas a segment on Newsmax firmly distanced itself from controversial claims made by Trump supporters about the firms.
Part of the Newsmax strategy appears to be an understanding that in a fracturing media landscape relentlessly appealing to conservative America, even if that means floating dubious election theories, has its commercial benefits.
It was an insight Michael Clemente, a former executive at Newsmax as well as Fox News, recently echoed, telling The New York Times of the liberal media dominance in America: “Fifty percent of the country has 90 percent of the news media speaking to them.”
Mr Ruddy rejected the charge from critics that Newsmax TV irresponsibly fanned election fraud claims. “Our channel’s been very consistent. We’ve never pushed any conspiracy theories," he said.
“The president and his attorneys have argued many unusual things. We’ve reported on it. That’s our job.”
Sean Spicer during his time as Donald Trump's press secretary
Credit: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
Part of the channel’s success has come from giving airtime to Trumpworld stars. Sean Spicer, the president’s first press secretary who has remained loyal to his former boss, has a show.
So too do Diamond and Silk, two African-American political bloggers turned activists who have built a deep following in the Trump support base, often appearing at his rallies.
Newsmax also has old connections to Britain’s conservative movement. William Rees-Mogg, the former Times editor and father of Tory House of Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg, was a founding chairman of the company.
For now, overtaking Fox News in TV viewing figures seems some distance away. The channel remains dominant in prime-time evening ratings, even amid a wobble post-election.
But the fracturing of the conservative US media ecosystem, accelerated by Mr Trump hammering away at the cracks, looks set to be a trend in the years to come.
“It’s a dark world for Fox going forward over the next 10 years,” Mr Ruddy predicted, appearing to relish his status as the underdog. “A very dark world.”
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