(PresidentialHill.com)- Earlier in the week, Newsmax was removed from the lineup by DirecTV due to a disagreement over payments. Conservatives and Republicans objected to the action, including former president Donald Trump.
Rep. Jeff Van Drew, who was interviewed by Newsmax’s Eric Bolling about DirecTV’s decision to cancel the conservative network, criticized Fox News for being silent on the issue. Van Drew reaffirmed his views to Bolling on The Balance after some Republicans in Congress suggested holding hearings on the decision.
“We need fairness and freedom of speech. And Congress absolutely, I believe, has a responsibility to look into this,” the congressman said.
Van Drew was skeptical that DirecTV’s decision was pure “business” and felt it was more “raw politics” and “censorship” that factored into their decision.
In response to Bolling’s question on whether Van Drew would hold hearings, the congressman said, “Yes, I will.”
After the release of the Newsmax story, the right-wing show The First was added to DirecTV’s channel lineup. The First host Dana Loesch praised the decision, saying it demonstrates that “nobody was silenced.”
On his program last week, Bolling disagreed with Loesch’s assessment and said that “high-rated conservative networks are the ones that are being eliminated” and that the fees in question are often given to “low-rated leftist news channels.”
Bolling concluded the interview with Van Drew by pointing out that Newsmax made a statement when One America News (OAN) was canceled.
“We stood up for OAN. When OAN got de-platformed, we stood up for them. So it’s not about that. It’s not about just us,” he said.
He then called out Rupert Murdoch’s network and challenged Fox News to stand up for Newsmax.
“By the way, where are you, Fox? How about you, Fox?” he asked. “How about you stand up for us! We did it for OAN.”
