One America News Network slammed its rival Newsmax for “censoring” Mike Lindell, CEO of MyPillow, during a Thursday segment.
Anchor Mike Dinow accused Newsmax of playing into viral “cancel culture” by trying to subdue conservative voices during the right-wing news outlet’s morning broadcast.
“It has become a disturbingly familiar series of events in recent weeks,” added Jenn Pellegrino, OAN’s White House correspondent.
The criticism by OAN of Newsmax was noteworthy as both conservative networks battle for power and influence in the post-Trump era.
Media Matters highlighted the split on Twitter.
The clip of the Tuesday interview with Lindell went viral after Newsmax anchor Bob Sellers repeatedly interrupted the MyPillow CEO.
Newsmax and other conservative outlets have been threatened with legal action by voting technology companies, which say the outlets have spread misinformation and conspiracy theories about their work.
It appeared that Sellars was cutting off Lindell given the context of those controversies.
“You’re talking about machines that we at Newsmax have not been able to verify any of those kinds of allegations,” Sellers said during the interview, interrupting Lindell. “We just want to let people know that there’s nothing substantive with what we’ve seen.”
Sellers then read the MyPillow CEO a statement regarding Newsmax’s view on alleged election fraud. “While there were some clear evidence of some cases of vote fraud and election irregularities, the election results in every state were certified, and Newsmax accepts the results as legal and final, the courts have also supported that view,” he read.
OAN’s Pellegrino stated that Newsmax tried to “muzzle” Lindell during a previous interview as well.
OAN then played a clip of Lindell discussing the Tuesday Newsmax interview, stating that the outlet had sent his assistant a memo telling him not to bring up the topics of election fraud or voting machines.
“Newsmax touts itself as real news for real people. But is this yet another case of a so-called fair and unbiased network being swept up by leftist censorship?” Pellegrino concluded.
Newsmax in a statement said there had been confusion over the topic for the segment, which led to a misunderstanding and the “unfortunate verbal disagreement on air.”
“Mike Lindell appeared later that evening on Newsmax’s Rob Schmitt Show to discuss cancel culture,” the statement said. “Mike has not claimed Newsmax tried to censor him and, in fact, praised Newsmax as being ‘great.’ We hold first amendment rights sacred.”
Lindell has been banned from Twitter on his personal and business accounts in recent weeks.
In his last tweet from the MyPillow account, Lindell attacked Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, accusing him of being involved in election fraud.
No evidence has been substantiated to back up claims that the 2020 election was rigged.