Newsmax told Ramaswamy to pay them if he wants more coverage

[Landslide Lyndon]

https://www.semafor.com/article/08/20/2023/republican-candidate-say-newsmax-tried-to-make-him-pay-for-coverage

If Vivek Ramaswamy wants to appear on Newsmax, he should pay to do it.

That was the message that network chief Chris Ruddy delivered to the Republican presidential candidate during a private call earlier this summer, according to two people to whom the candidate described the conversation. Ramaswamy had complained that the right-leaning network was sticking him in little-watched midday slots or ignoring him outright.

Ruddy also suggested a solution, Ramaswamy told associates: buy more television ads on the network. Ruddy, Ramaswamy told them, noted that such a transaction had helped Republican businessman Perry Johnson, a gadfly candidate who has thus far garnered only passing attention among mainstream and even conservative outlets covering the 2024 presidential cycle.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

I don't waste my time with OAA and Newsmax. Neither of the those two networks are positioned to be a credible competitor to FOX anyway.

[Anti-Penguin Tariff Voter]

Is that.. legal?

[Wrong about 2024 Ghost]

Is that.. legal?

It's taken the better part of three years of Merrick Garland to get Trump in court for an actual coup attempt. I think its safe to say that any relationship between the law and Republican primary politics is entirely coincidental.

[I love MAGA, don’t send me to the camps]

Is that.. legal?

Isn’t this every business… ever? Gotta pay to play

[emailking]

Is that.. legal?

It's not what happened. He complained about a lack of coverage and they suggested buying more ads on the network.

[Averroës]

Semafor has had a few misleading headlines like this lately, which is an unfortunate pivot for a promising news organization.

I opened this story earlier this morning, eager to read the details on Newsmax running some kind of pay-for-play coverage scheme. It wouldn't have surprised me at all.

As it turns out, the wrong was more on Ramaswamy's side: He approached the network chief, taking the arrogant assumption that he could pressure management into telling the newsroom to give him more coverage, and the network chief effectively told him to get lost.

[Consuming is good, it's what we're made for]

I, for one, lament the fact that it's not easier to purchase the Presidency!