AT&T criticized after dropping Newsmax

Former President Donald Trump and several other prominent conservatives are criticizing Dallas-based AT&T, which jointly owns satellite company DirecTV, for dropping right-wing cable channel Newsmax.

What happened: DirecTV removed Newsmax from its lineup last Tuesday night. DirecTV said it wanted to keep Newsmax on its list of provided channels but couldn't because of Newsmax's increasing fees.

• Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy said the decision is "a blatant act of political discrimination and censorship."

Why it matters: Dozens of Republican lawmakers signed a letter to AT&T and DirecTV executives, alleging that the move to remove the channel amounted to liberal censorship of conservative media.

• On Thursday, Trump called the decision "​​a big blow to the Republican Party, and to America itself," and said the "Radical Left seems to have taken over the mind and soul of AT&T."
• Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Republican from Colorado and the House Freedom Caucus' communications chair, suggested the House Oversight Committee should investigate AT&T.

Flashback: There were similar outcries last year, when DirecTV removed conservative news network OANN.

By the numbers: DirecTV has 13 million subscribers, per CNN.

• Newsmax pulled in an average of fewer than 150,000 total daily viewers in 2022, per The Hill.
• For comparison, a daily average of 1.4 million people watched Fox News, 733,000 watched MSNBC and 568,000 watched CNN.

The intrigue: AT&T, the world's largest communications company, has quietly become a powerful player in conservative politics. In 2021, the company was criticized by progressives for contributing to the conservative politicians who passed Texas' abortion ban.

The other side: Rob Thun, DirecTV's chief content officer, said in a press release that the company "values different viewpoints and perspectives and will always work to preserve expansive choice among a wide variety of entertainment and information services."

• DirecTV recently added another conservative network, The First, to its services.

Reality check: Newsmax is still available to stream on YouTube, Roku and the network's own website.