海角大神

Now that his largely invisible network has suddenly been flooded by fans of President Donald Trump, Newsmax television personality Grant Stinchfield is puffing out his chest.

鈥淭hey don鈥檛 know what to do with all of us,鈥� Mr. Stinchfield said on the air Monday night. 鈥淲e鈥檙e killing it here on Newsmax with a tactic they鈥檝e never tried. It鈥檚 called the truth, the stone-cold truth, and once you get a taste of it, you will never tolerate being lied to again.鈥�

The conservative network鈥檚 critics suggest the opposite is true, that Newsmax鈥檚 viewers are being presented discredited stories such as a voting system that changed or deleted votes, questions about how closely Republicans were able to monitor vote-counting, and the volume of absentee ballots being accepted.

There is no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election. In fact, election officials from both political parties have stated publicly that the election went well and international observers confirmed there were no serious irregularities.

But Newsmax鈥檚 burst, whether or not it lasts, has been astonishingly swift and could foreshadow significant competition to Fox News Channel鈥檚 dominance with conservative viewers in two decades.

鈥淲e鈥檝e really cornered Fox from the right,鈥� said Chris Ruddy, Newsmax founder and friend of Mr. Trump. 鈥淭hey鈥檝e never had that.鈥�

From the beginning of July to the week before Election Day, Newsmax averaged 58,000 viewers from 7 to 10 p.m. on weekdays. That jumped to 568,000 the week after the election, the Nielsen company said. In the same period, daytime viewership increased from 46,000 to 450,000.

For the same dates, Fox News averaged 3.6 million viewers in the evening, Nielsen said. Fox鈥檚 prime-time viewership during the two weeks after the election was up 50 percent over last year.

鈥淲e love competition. We have always thrived on competition,鈥� Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch said on an Election Day earnings call.

Mr. Ruddy traced much of Newsmax鈥檚 increase to Trump supporters angered by Fox鈥檚 election night call that Democrat Joe Biden had won Arizona 鈥� ahead of any other news organization. While that call proved correct, for the president鈥檚 backers it was an ill-timed sign of insufficient loyalty from their favorite network.

Mr. Trump, who criticized Fox throughout the campaign, has driven the point home with repeated tweets suggesting his followers check out Newsmax or a smaller rival that also presses a conservative viewpoint, One America News Network.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a large part of the country that wants to have a voice, the same people who gave birth to what turned into a very robust Fox News,鈥� said Michael Clemente, Newsmax鈥檚 CEO until last April and a former Fox News executive. 鈥淣ow, more than ever, they want to be heard, and have influence equal to their peers on the coasts. Their loyalty is to that voice and not to any place or another.鈥�

Newsmax says it has an editorial staff of 70, including those attached to its website, which at midday Wednesday led with stories about Mr. Trump鈥檚 press secretary calling restrictions on Thanksgiving gatherings 鈥淥rwellian,鈥� and the president鈥檚 latest false tweet claiming an election victory.

The television network is running a clever ad telling conservative viewers not to be 鈥渙ut-foxed,鈥� but it was telling on Monday that both Newsmax and OANN spent considerable time discussing an interview that was conducted on Fox, where a Trump lawyer predicted her client would win by millions of votes.

Programming generally consists of news talk shows, and it鈥檚 not difficult to see where the loyalty lies.

鈥淒onald Trump is the most powerful person in the world,鈥� said Greg Kelly, a former personality at Fox鈥檚 New York affiliate who is Newsmax鈥檚 most polished broadcaster. 鈥淣ot because he鈥檚 president, but because he鈥檚 loved by so many people.鈥�

When Newsmax鈥檚 Chris Salcedo asked a question about Mr. Biden during an interview Monday with Trump aide Peter Navarro, he was quickly brushed off.

鈥淎s far as I鈥檓 concerned, President Trump is going to have a second term,鈥� Mr. Navarro said.

Newsmax hasn鈥檛 declared Mr. Biden the president-elect, unlike other news organizations, including Fox and The Associated Press. They say they are waiting for final certification of the vote before doing so.

Even though Mr. Ruddy conceded in an interview that Mr. Trump has an extremely narrow chance of overturning the results, he said it鈥檚 up to the states, not media organizations, to declare a winner. When that process is done, Newsmax will accept the winner, he said.

But if Mr. Trump鈥檚 chances of overturning the results are so small, why should a discussion about them dominate Newsmax鈥檚 airtime?

鈥淚 think that people that are not pro-Trump or don鈥檛 like him think we should get past it or they are tired of it,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut conservatives are quite anxious to hear about developments.鈥�

He said he differs from Mr. Trump in believing the administration should be cooperating in a transition, even if the president holds out hope that the results could somehow be overturned.

鈥淚 would tell him if I speak to him that I think they should engage in a transition,鈥� he said.

The spotlight on smaller rivals comes at an extraordinarily tumultuous time at Fox. There鈥檚 always been a tension between the news and opinion sides of the network, but this time it鈥檚 reflected in the ultimate 鈥渦nspinnable鈥� story of election results, said Nicole Hemmer, a Columbia University professor and author of 鈥淢essengers of the Right: Conservative Media and the Transformation of American Politics.鈥�

In some respects, the surge in Newsmax鈥檚 viewership represents a temper tantrum by some Fox viewers, she said.

For Newsmax, a big question is whether its programming is compelling enough to hold viewers who are clearly sampling. Besides Mr. Kelly, former Trump press secretary Sean Spicer is Newsmax鈥檚 best-known personality. Both their shows are aired twice a night; Mr. Ruddy said a new prime-time show will start next month and another is in the works.

鈥淚t鈥檚 going to be a challenge for [Newsmax] to grow their numbers in the way that Fox did because of the lack of a news operation,鈥� Ms. Hemmer said.

This story was reported by The Associated Press. AP writer Lynn Elber contributed from Los Angeles.