Newsmax's sordid history of scams, grifts, and cons

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Media Matters
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Newsmax has used hyperpartisan content to build an audience of right-wing seniors and bilked them through an array of scams and dubious products for more than a decade

Newsmax’s sordid history of scams, grifts, and cons
mediamatters.org
10:02 AM · May 7, 2021

https://www.mediamatters.org/newsmax/newsmaxs-sordid-history-scams-grifts-and-cons

The conservative media outlet Newsmax has used hyperpartisan content to build an audience of right-wing seniors and bilked them through an array of scams and dubious products for more than a decade.

Christopher Ruddy, a right-wing journalist who cut his teeth generating conspiracy theories about the Clintons during the 1990s and a friend of former President Donald Trump, founded Newsmax in 1998. The company recently gained notoriety for its cable news channel, Newsmax TV, which relentlessly lied to viewers about Democrats supposedly stealing the 2020 presidential election in order to position itself as an even more pro-Trump alternative to Fox News.

Newsmax TV reportedly loses money, in part because it is required to pay hefty fees to cable companies to get them to carry the station. But the attention its programming generates helps build Newsmax’s brand among conservatives who might support the company’s other endeavors.

The Newsmax umbrella also includes Newsmax.com, a website with health and finance subsections; a magazine; a series of health and finance newsletters; online sales of products including nutritional supplements; and more than 70 email lists. These different products cater to what the company’s media kit describes as its “core audience” of “Boomer Power+” -- conservatives over the age of 45 who are more likely to have brokerage accounts and buy vitamins.

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