PODCAST: Murdoch, Trump, Tucker, Dominion, DeSantis. Chris Ruddy has opinions to share.

The Media Mix gets the latest conservative media thinking.

This week on The Media Mix podcast, Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy shares the latest on why he’s fighting the defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems over claims made on air in the wake of the 2020 election. 

He thinks Dominion would have a hard time proving that Newsmax acted with malice and argues a Dominion court win would have a chilling effect on the media and make court reporting more difficult. Newsmax is set to go trial next year. “In my view they’re political lawsuits,” says Ruddy.

If he’s wrong, it’s unclear how Newsmax could survive the financial fall-out. 

In April, Dominion settled its defamation claim with Fox for a record $787 million. A Dominion lawyer Stephen Shackleford said at the time: “Money is accountability and we got that today from Fox, but we’re not done yet. We’ve got some other people who have some accountability coming towards them.” 

Meanwhile, Ruddy says he’s open to a discussion with Tucker Carlson about joining the network which already employs plenty of former Fox News faces including Greg Kelly, Greta Van Susteren and Eric Bolling, but he says Carlson’s contract with Fox News would likely prevent it. 

Carlson already has his own show on Twitter while Megyn Kelly has her SiriusXM show, “everybody wants to be Joe Rogan,” says Ruddy. 

The Newsmax CEO who started out as a reporter for the New York Post, had high praise for Rupert Murdoch’s efforts to keep conservative voices alive by spending billions on Fox News and the New York Post but also fears the silencing of key conservative voices and calls out Murdoch’s desire to be a political “kingmaker.”

In a wide ranging conversation on The Media Mix, Ruddy talks about the history of presidential record keeping and President Trump’s predicament, along with his thoughts on the Republican primary race and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ flaws. And on the Disney war with DeSantis? Ruddy says Disney was wrong to have voiced opposition to the “Don’t Say Gay,” Florida rule-making.  

When it comes to Ruddy’s own business, he tells me that Newsmax is changing some of its practices. The traditional cable feed has long been available on YouTube, giving a boost to the network’s ratings. Now, Ruddy explains, the Florida-based company is making the feed available only to pay-TV customers. Newsmax is launching a new over-the-top, ad-supported service in its place.

There’s more on the topic of streaming with former NBCUniversal Olympics executive producer Jim Bell, now head of strategy at Newsbreak. We talked in June about AppleTV+ and some of the potential challenges of the MLS tie-up with Lionel Messi. 

Have a listen here, or wherever you get your audio feeds. 

If you have a correction, guest idea or feedback or would like to sponsor the podcast, please drop us a line at TheMediaMixUS@gmail.com.