Journalist Matt Taibbi told Newsmax2 on Monday that any move by New York City officials to block Newsmax from appearing on digital screens in city taxis would likely violate the First Amendment.
Taibbi said that any attempt to prevent Newsmax from appearing on digital screens in New York City taxis would constitute unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination.
"It's a pretty cut-and-dried legal case," said Taibbi, editor-in-chief of Racket News.
"When the government gives anything of benefit to any group or any person, if they deny it to somebody else for reasons of opinion or speech, that's a violation of the First Amendment," he continued.
"You just can't do that."
The controversy was sparked after Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal sent a letter urging city officials to pressure a taxi media provider to stop carrying Newsmax programming.
Newsmax recently partnered with Curb to deliver news updates on in-cab television systems in roughly 15,000 taxis nationwide, including about 9,000 vehicles in New York City.
Hoylman-Sigal has urged Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission to suspend its partnership with Curb and require the company to stop carrying Newsmax programming as a condition of its license.
He claimed Newsmax provides "politically charged content" and should not be considered a credible news outlet.
Newsmax said in a statement: "This is a pure act of censorship targeting a news organization reaching over 50 million Americans regularly. Newsmax plays it straight and that drives the far left crazy."
Taibbi said that treating Newsmax differently from other content on taxi screens would be legally indefensible.
"So if they allow other stations to be on those little screens that we've all seen in the taxis, they can't prevent Newsmax from being on there," he said.
Taibbi said that past court rulings involving media access have established clear limits on viewpoint discrimination under the First Amendment.
"This is the kind of thing where almost any judge in the world — they won't take any time at all to decide this one," Taibbi said of a hypothetical legal challenge.
"I'll be very surprised if they rule against Newsmax in this situation."
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