Newsmax stirs up trouble for Fox

Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy is causing problems for Fox News, despite the fact that his company lacks the scale of the larger network. In a previous attempt, Ruddy filed an antitrust lawsuit against Fox, claiming that the company used exclusionary carriage deals to limit Newsmax's presence on streaming platforms. However, this case was dismissed last year.

Undeterred, Ruddy has refiled his lawsuit and is now working with allies in the White House to push the Justice Department's antitrust enforcers to block Fox's $22 billion acquisition of Roku. This comes after the DOJ widened its investigation into the deal's impact on streaming competition. Despite failing to stop the Nexstar-Tegna merger or secure a $250 million compensation fund in an FTC settlement over an advertising giants merger, Ruddy continues to keep big companies' lawyers busy, thanks to his connections with President Trump.

Fox has dismissed Ruddy's antitrust case as an attempt to "sue their way out of their own competitive failures." The DOJ has not responded to requests for comment on the matter.