## News Summary: Newsmax Lawsuit Against Fox News Dismissed, Highlighting Fox's Dominance **News Title:** Newsmax lawsuit shows Fox News is bigger than Donald Trump **Report Provider:** Salon.com **Author:** Sophia Tesfaye **Publication Date:** September 7, 2025 --- ### **Main Findings and Conclusions** This article discusses the recent dismissal of Newsmax's antitrust lawsuit against Fox News by Judge Aileen Cannon. The lawsuit alleged that Fox News engaged in anticompetitive behavior to suppress Newsmax's growth and distribution. The dismissal, while temporary (Newsmax has until September 11 to refile), is presented as a significant win for Fox News and underscores its enduring dominance in the right-wing media landscape, even in the face of Donald Trump's influence. The article argues that while Donald Trump initially sought to punish Fox News for calling Arizona for Joe Biden in the 2020 election, leading some viewers to switch to Newsmax, his efforts to undermine Fox have ultimately been short-lived. Despite Trump's continued criticism and even a libel lawsuit against Fox's parent company, he has since made a "tentative peace" with the network, recognizing its importance for his political aspirations. ### **Key Statistics and Metrics** * **2020 Election Fallout:** Following the 2020 election and Fox News' call for Arizona, a "dramatic uptick" in Newsmax watchers was observed, with some loyal Fox viewers switching permanently. * **Viewer Sentiment (2023 NH Poll):** A 2023 poll of likely GOP primary voters in New Hampshire found: * **95%** of Newsmax viewers had a favorable view of Donald Trump. * **64%** of Fox News viewers had a favorable view of Donald Trump. * **Fox News Ratings Post-Trump's 2024 Candidacy:** Since Trump announced his candidacy for president in November 2022 and subsequently made a high-profile return to Fox News with an interview by Sean Hannity in March 2023, Fox's ratings have "soared." * **Primetime Dominance:** The New York Times reported that Fox News has attracted more viewers in primetime throughout the summer than any other network, including major broadcasters like ABC, CBS, and NBC. ### **Significant Trends and Changes** * **Shift in Trump's Strategy:** Initially seeking to punish Fox News, Donald Trump has since recognized the need for a more amicable relationship with the network, particularly as he campaigns for the 2024 presidential election. * **Newsmax's Rise and Legal Action:** Newsmax capitalized on conservative frustration with Fox News and Trump's narrative of a stolen election, attracting former Fox News talent and a segment of the MAGA base. However, facing perceived competitive disadvantages, Newsmax resorted to legal action. * **Fox News' Resilience:** Despite facing criticism and internal revelations from the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit, Fox News has demonstrated remarkable resilience, maintaining its dominant position in the conservative media market. * **Judge Aileen Cannon's Role:** Judge Aileen Cannon, known for her handling of Trump's classified documents case, presided over the dismissal of Newsmax's lawsuit, ordering Newsmax to "identify the particular legal basis for liability and contain specific factual allegations that support each cause of action within each count" if they choose to refile. ### **Material Financial Data** * **Fox News Settlement:** Fox News settled a defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems for **$787.5 million**. Discovery documents from this case revealed internal communications where Fox executives and Tucker Carlson privately acknowledged the falsity of election fraud allegations. * **Newsmax's Damages Claim:** Newsmax was seeking damages under Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act, the Florida Antitrust Act, and the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. They asked for **three times the amount of damages** they claimed to have suffered, though these specific amounts were not detailed in the lawsuit. They also sought an injunction and pre- and post-judgment interest. ### **Notable Risks or Concerns** * **Newsmax's Competitive Challenges:** The article suggests that Newsmax's lawsuit may be an attempt to "sue their way out of their own competitive failures in the marketplace" rather than a genuine case of anticompetitive behavior by Fox News. * **Fox News' Internal Acknowledgment of Falsehoods:** The exposure of internal Fox News communications acknowledging the falsity of election fraud claims, while not directly part of the Newsmax lawsuit, highlights a significant concern regarding the network's journalistic integrity and its impact on viewers. ### **Important Recommendations** * **Newsmax's Refiling:** Newsmax has until **September 11** to refile its lawsuit, adhering to Judge Cannon's order for more specific legal and factual allegations. ### **Key Statements** * **Jenny Brethen (Former Fox News Viewer):** "Once you do something like that, you’re done in our book... We’re permanently switched." (Referring to Fox News calling Arizona for Biden) * **Judge Aileen Cannon's Order:** "Each count must identify the particular legal basis for liability and contain specific factual allegations that support each cause of action within each count." * **Newsmax's Allegations:** Accusing Fox of running an "exclusionary scheme" to "maintain its dominance" in "right-leaning pay TV" that resulted "in suppression of competition [...] that harms consumers." * **Internal Fox Communications:** Fox News president Jay Wallace wrote in a text to CEO Suzanne Scott that the network was on "war footing" with Newsmax, and Tucker Carlson warned that "an alternative like Newsmax could be devastating to us." * **Fox News Spokesperson:** "Newsmax cannot sue their way out of their own competitive failures in the marketplace to chase headlines simply because they can’t attract viewers." * **Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy:** "If Newsmax was such a ratings failure, why has Fox spent so much time, energy, and resources to suppress us, block us, and denigrate us? The answer is obvious. Also, please note that Fox in its statement does not deny any of our serious allegations." --- **News Identifier:** The article is identified by its URL: `https://www.salon.com/2025/09/07/newsmax-lawsuit-shows-fox-news-is-bigger-than-donald-trump/` and its publication date of September 7, 2025.
Newsmax lawsuit shows Fox News is bigger than Donald Trump
Read original at Salon.com →commentaryWith her lawsuit dismissal, Judge Aileen Cannon hands the network an important winPublishedSeptember 7, 2025 6:45AM (EDT) Donald Trump chats with Fox News host Sean Hannity following a town hall on Sept. 4, 2024. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images) The fallout from President Donald Trump’s Big Lie initially hit Fox News hard.
The Rupert Murdoch-owned broadcaster was one of the first major outlets to call Arizona for Joe Biden on election night in 2020, enraging the president. He set out to trash the right-wing network as far and wide as possible.“Once you do something like that, you’re done in our book,” Jenny Brethen, a loyal Fox News viewer of 20 years who switched to Newsmax the day after the election, told the Washington Post at the time.
“We’re permanently switched.” Brethen said that she and her husband exclusively consumed Fox’s conservative cable news competitor “from the time she [got] up to the time she [went] to bed.” She was one of 15 former Fox News viewers the Post interviewed as part of what they labeled a “dramatic uptick” in Newsmax watchers following the election — and after Trump “encouraged his followers to flip the channel to Newsmax or One America News.
” Newsmax, the story reported, was “capitalizing on conservative frustration with Fox, and, some say, a desire from President Trump’s fans to keep alive the flailing narrative that he will ultimately serve a second term, despite Biden’s coming inauguration.”The network, which has been in operation since 2014, set out to lure as many Fox News stars as possible.
Veteran hosts like Greta Van Susteren, Eric Bolling, Greg Kelly, Ed Henry and Rob Schmidt made the jump to the Chris Ruddy-owned venture.Fox, though, fought back. After the 2020 election and the revolt of viewers who were angry about the Arizona call, the network catered to Trump and his MAGA base by pushing out Trump-skeptic voices like longtime anchor Neil Cavuto and politics editor Chris Stirewalt, while hiring Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara and former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany.
Still, the network suffered another setback when primetime star Tucker Carlson was fired in the aftermath of Fox’s $787.5 million settlement of Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation suit. Discovery documents from that case exposed internal communications in which Carlson and Fox’s executives privately acknowledged the election fraud allegations were false — even as they were aired on the network.
More MAGA faithful fled for Newsmax. A 2023 poll of likely GOP primary voters in New Hampshire found that while 95% of Newsmax viewers had a favorable view of Trump, only 64% of Fox viewers did.But while Newsmax’s popularity has risen steadily since 2020 — this year, the network went public and partnered with Trump Media to expand streaming services — Trump’s vengeance on Fox News was short-lived.
Sure, he never really gave up on hate-watching Fox and rage-posting about it. And he is still at war with the Murdoch empire, even recently filing a libel lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal, its publisher Dow Jones and News Corp.After announcing in November 2022 that he would be a candidate for president in 2024, Trump knew he had to make a tentative peace with the network.
Four months later, he made a high-profile return to Fox by giving an extensive interview to Sean Hannity. Since Trump’s inauguration, Fox’s ratings have soared.After announcing in November 2022 that he would be a candidate for president in 2024, Trump knew he had to make a tentative peace with the network.
Four months later, he made a high-profile return to Fox by giving an extensive interview to Sean Hannity. Since Trump’s inauguration, Fox’s ratings have soared. The New York Times reported that Fox News has attracted more viewers in primetime all summer than any other network on television, including major broadcasters ABC, CBS and NBC.
Trump’s second administration has nearly two dozen former Fox News employees.Despite the boom times for both conservative news outlets following Trump’s election victory, Newsmax executives apparently feel slighted. “But for Fox’s anticompetitive behavior, Newsmax would have achieved greater pay TV distribution, seen its audience and ratings grow sooner, gained earlier ‘critical mass’ for major advertisers and become, overall, a more valuable media property,” they wrote in a new lawsuit.
Filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida earlier this week, the case landed on the docket of Judge Aileen Cannon, who became infamous for dragging out Trump’s classified documents case. On Friday she dismissed Newsmax’s suit and gave the network until Sept. 11 to refile. “Each count must identify the particular legal basis for liability and contain specific factual allegations that support each cause of action within each count,” Cannon ordered.
Want more sharp takes on politics? Sign up for our free newsletter, Standing Room Only, written by Amanda Marcotte, now also a weekly show on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.Accusing Fox of running an “exclusionary scheme” to “maintain its dominance” in “right-leaning pay TV” that resulted “in suppression of competition […] that harms consumers,” Newsmax was seeking damages under Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act, the Florida Antitrust Act and the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.
The network asked for three times the amount of damages it claimed to have suffered, although those were not specified in the suit, as well as an injunction and pre- and post-judgment interest “at the highest legal rate.” Newsmax cited internal Fox messages that became public via the defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems, where Fox News president Jay Wallace wrote in a text to CEO Suzanne Scott that the network was on “war footing” with Newsmax, and Tucker Carlson warned that “an alternative like Newsmax could be devastating to us.
” If you can’t beat them, sue them, apparently. The irony of the conservative underdog crying out for help from the courts because unfettered capitalism is so unfair can’t be missed — yet it still deserves a shout-out. “Newsmax cannot sue their way out of their own competitive failures in the marketplace to chase headlines simply because they can’t attract viewers,” a Fox News spokesperson said in a statement this week.
Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy shot back in an interview with CNBC, “If Newsmax was such a ratings failure, why has Fox spent so much time, energy, and resources to suppress us, block us, and denigrate us? The answer is obvious. Also, please note that Fox in its statement does not deny any of our serious allegations.
”Since Trump returned to office in January, Newsmax has helped launder the uglier aspects of Trump’s presidency, like when host Greg Kelly took a bizarre pro-Ghislaine Maxwell turn after the convicted sex trafficker was moved to a minimum security prison. As payback for the network’s blind loyalty, Newsmax apparently thinks it is owed a bigger slice of the MAGA media pie.
But Fox News has proven too powerful for even Trump to take down. After Cannon’s dismissal of Newsmax’s suit, the ball is now back in the network’s court.BySophia Tesfaye Sophia Tesfaye is a senior writer (and former senior politics editor) for Salon. She resides in Washington, D.C.You can find her on Twitter at @SophiaTesfaye.
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